Study on cognitive decline in patients diagnosed with brain tumors

The purpose of our study was to assess the cognitive performance in patients with primitive brain tumors and to analyze the cognitive status of these patients, correlated with histological type of brain tumors.

The study enrolled 52 patients diagnosed with primitive brain tumors, hospitalized in Neuropsychiatry Hospital of Craiova, Romania, from December 2013 to December 2015. According to the histological type of tumors, the patients were classified into three groups: Group A included 22 patients with meningioma, Group B composed of 16 patients diagnosed with glioblastoma, and Group C including 14 patients diagnosed with diffuse astrocytoma. Neurological examination, neuroimaging assessment [computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for skulls] to diagnose primitive brain tumors, then the confirmation of clinical and histopathological diagnoses were performed for these patients. For cognitive assessment performed before surgery, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG) scales were used. The results were statistically analyzed using the Student's t-test; p-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

In terms of age, we did not observe statistically significant differences between the three groups of patients. The group of patients with diffuse astrocytoma presented a higher educational level compared to patients with glioblastoma or meningioma. MoCA score obtained in glioblastoma group was 21.7 points, while in the group of patients with diffuse astrocytoma was 23.5 points, and in the group of patients with meningioma 24.2 points. The cognitive assessment using CAMCOG scale led to the following results: group of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma showed an average score of 83.5 points, the diffuse astrocytoma group had an average score of 88.9 points and the group with meningioma an average score of 90.1 points.

Patients diagnosed with glioblastoma showed a statistically significant cognitive decline in comparison to patients diagnosed with diffuse astrocytoma (p<0.05). We did not notice statistically significant differences in the cognitive decline of patients with meningioma compared to those diagnosed with diffuse astrocytoma (p>0.05).