Assessing Quality of Life among Radiation-Induced Hypopituitarism Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Radiotherapy is a mainstay of definitive or adjuvant treatment for anterior skull base tumors. Among these patients who undergo skull base radiation, an estimated 37% go on to develop radiation-induced hypopituitarism. It has previously been shown that radiotherapy in general is a negative prognostic factor for quality of life (QoL) among skull base patients; however, to our knowledge, QoL has not yet been analyzed for the radiation-induced hypopituitarism population. The Anterior Skull Base Questionnaire (ASBQ; developed by Z. Gil) is a multidimensional quality of life assessment instrument with 35 questions (each on a 5-point Likert scale) that has been validated to estimate patients’ QoL after removal of anterior skull base tumors. This study aims to determine if there is a difference in QoL (measured by ASBQ) between radiated patients who developed hypopituitarism compared with radiated patients who did not develop hypopituitarism.