Clinical trial of feasibility for mindfulness intervention for patients with newly diagnosed high grade glioma

With a bleak prognosis for malignant glioma, maintaining quality of life (QoL) and decreasing distress are essential in patient clinical care. Mindfulness meditation is a mind-body therapy that is being investigated as a non-pharmacological strategy to alleviate cancer symptoms and improve QoL. Given the potential of this intervention, we hypothesized that mindfulness meditation is feasible and may benefit patients with brain tumors on active therapy by decreasing stress and anxiety.

Patients with newly diagnosed WHO grade 3-4 malignant glioma were enrolled to evaluate the feasibility of a mindfulness intervention that coincided with standard of care chemoradiation. The intervention consisted of six weekly one-hour telephone-based mindfulness sessions followed by one in-person mindfulness session. QoL was measured by standardized patient-reported outcome questionnaires pre- and post-intervention. Feasibility was assessed within three domains: acceptability, demand, and implementation.

Over a four-month period, 27 patients were offered the opportunity to participate in this study, of which 15 participated. Median age at enrollment was 60 years (range 28-76 years), with enrollees being predominantly female (73.3%) and white (100%). The average percentage of sessions that the patient attended was 82.86% (SD = 28.16). Of the 10 patients who completed the exit interview, 70% indicated they would continue practicing mindfulness. For patients that attend all seven sessions, >50% of patients found the sessions beneficial.

Mindfulness intervention during active treatment for patients with high grade glioma is feasible. Given these results, a larger study has the potential to benefit patients with high grade glioma on active treatment.