The effectiveness of operative therapy on the distress of brain tumor patients

Abstract

Amongst the population of cancer patients, brain tumor patients are one of the most severely affected by their illnesses. They suffer tremendous quality of life reductions due to functional impairment, neurocognitive dysfunction, and psychosocial distress. Psychosocial distress, despite having a large impact on quality of life, is often an afterthought and overlooked. Some patients do not receive supportive care until the palliative stage, if at all. Recognizing the need for psychosocial care and quantifying its different aspects is therefore important to integrate into standard neurooncological clinical practice. This can be done through questionnaires or interviews conducted by healthcare professionals or filled out by the patients themselves. This study aimed to explore how operative resection of brain tumors impacts patient distress, specifically their physical and psychosocial burdens, using the Distress Thermometer (DT) and Signaling Questions (SQ) as measuring instruments. Along with this, we also sought to determine how other factors such as socioeconomic status, treatment effectiveness or patient difficulties may impact distress. Using both measuring instruments before and after operations, we were able to collect data from 41 patients for analysis. Our results showed a post-operative increase in physical distress and a decrease in emotional distress. This was consistent across the entire population, even among severely distressed patients (DT≥6). DT and SQ correlated to each other significantly and SQ proved to be a good predictor for distress. Other factors that can significantly impact distress are sex, marital status, and occupational status. Difficulties with the interview did not seem to impact the data that we gathered and neither did treatment effectiveness. However, we must note that the parameters used to quantify both the aforementioned aspects are disputable. All in all, operative therapy does increase overall stress. Nevertheless, a nuanced view is worth looking into, as different aspects of stress behave differently. SQ and DT are suitable instruments to measure distress, however SQ may be better suited as a screening instrument, whereas DT is a proven instrument to quantify the different aspects of distress.