Neurocognitive outcome and resective brain tumor surgery in adults

Abstract

Patient performance is of particular importance to evaluate treatment outcome in the circumstances of incurable neurological disease. This is the case for patients with gliomas for whom palliation of symptoms and sustained or improved quality of life are equally important goals of treatment as prolonged survival and postponed tumor progression. Evaluation of treatment in brain tumor patients should therefore focus beyond oncological endpoints, and should also aim at avoiding adverse treatment effects on the normal brain to ensure optimal social and professional functioning. Functional outcome can be considered as a construct with several dimensions. These dimensions include neurological, cognitive, professional, and social performance of an individual, which can be represented by the health related quality of life (HRQOL). Cognitive functioning is one of the critical outcome measures because subclinical cognitive impairment can have a large impact on the daily life of patients [88, 127].