COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS AND QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH LOW-GRADE GLIOMAS - THE IMPACT OF RADIOTHERAPY

The role of early radiotherapy in the treatment of low-grade gliomas i s controversial. For this reason the impact of radiotherapy on quality of life was studied in long-term survivors of biopsy-proved low-grade gliomas without signs of tumor recurrence. Twenty patients (age range , 18-66 years) had been treated with early radiotherapy; the other 21 patients (age range, 19-65 years) had undergone surgery or biopsy only . The interval from diagnosis to testing ranged from 1 to 12 years (me an, 3.5 years). Nineteen patients with low-grade hematological maligna ncies, surviving 1 to 15 years without central nervous system involvem ent, served as control subjects. Apart from the neurological and funct ional status, the patients' cognitive, affective, and psychological st atus was determined. None of the survivors had significant neurologica l impairment and the Karnofsky index for them was at least 70. However , more specific examinations of cognitive functions and the affective status (Profile of Mood States) indicated that, compared to the contro l subjects, the patients with low-grade gliomas had significantly more cognitive disturbances and suffered more frequently from fatigue and depressed moods. The two groups with low-grade gliomas, on the other h and, did not differ significantly on any of these measures. It is conc luded that radiotherapy did not cause these disturbances and had no ne gative impact on quality of life in these patients.