Cognitive score in patients with primary brain tumors undergoing systemic therapy – a cross-sectional study

Background: The systemic treatment of brain tumors is complex. Apart from the disease burden and adverse effects of systemic therapy, cognitive decline of patients undergoing treatment is an added liability. However, there is limited literature on the cognitive assessment of the patients receiving systemic therapy. Objectives: We performed this cross-sectional analysis to assess the perceived cognition status and quality of life (QOL) of patients with brain tumors receiving systemic therapy and the factors affecting them. Materials and Methods: Adult patients receiving systemic therapy in the outpatient department of the neuro-medical oncology unit at the Tata Memorial Hospital (Mumbai, India) were enrolled in this study. The patients were administered the functional assessment of cancer therapy cognitive function issues (FACT-Cog) QOL questionnaire. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to determine the best combination of age, gender, education, and the affected lobe for predicting the different cognitive QOL scores. Results: The study cohort comprised a total of 100 patients with a median age of 39 (range, 18–64) years. Of these, 68 were men and 32 were women. The mean scores with standard deviations (SDs) calculated for the perceived cognitive impairment, the impact of perceived cognitive impairment on QOL, the comments from others, and the perceived cognitive abilities, were 61.96 (SD; 15.43), 11.8 (SD; 5.16), 13.82 (SD; 3.92), and 21.79 (SD; 5.16), respectively. There was no significant association between the various FACT-Cog subscales and the selected factors, namely older age (>60 years), gender, education, and the affected lobe (frontal, temporal, parietal, and others). Conclusions: This is the first Indian study to report the perceived cognitive scores and QOL assessment for patients with brain tumors that can be useful for generating hypotheses and calculating the sample size for future studies. As none of the evaluated factors could reliably impact the cognitive score, an assessment of the cognitive QOL should be done for each patient.