P12.02 Symptoms of patients with diffuse glioma during stable disease as a potential target for treatment

Abstract

Abstract BACKGROUND Patients with diffuse glioma experience many tumor- and treatment-related symptoms, including fatigue, cognitive deficits, and anxiety. It remains unclear how the frequency and burden of these symptoms change over time and specifically which symptoms patients experience during the stable phase of the disease. We assessed the frequency and burden of common symptoms in glioma patients during stable disease and whether patients were willing to undergo treatment for those symptoms. We suggest a top five of potentially treatable symptoms. METHODS Patients with a diffuse glioma during stable disease completed a questionnaire on symptoms they experienced during the past two weeks, such as irritability, fatigue, stress, pain, depressive thoughts and relationship problems. They rated the frequency and burden of seventeen symptoms on a seven-point numeric scale ranging from ‘never’ to ‘continuously’ and from ‘no burden’ to ‘unbearable’, respectively. Also, they stated whether they were willing to undergo treatment for each symptom. Data was collected retrospectively. The median values of the frequency and burden dimension were calculated for each symptom. We composed a top five of most frequent and burdensome symptoms. We used Kendall’s Tau to correlate frequency, burden and willingness to undergo treatment per symptom. RESULTS Fifty-two patients were included, 77% had a KPS score of 90–100, 23% a KPS score of 70–80 and 40% had a glioblastoma. The top five most frequent and burdensome symptoms were fatigue, memory problems, reduced physical fitness, concentration problems and drowsiness. Fatigue had the highest median value on the frequency (median 4.5, IQR 2.5) and burden (median 4.0, IQR 3.00) dimension and 21% of the patients were willing to undergo treatment for fatigue. Overall 35% of the patients were willing to undergo treatment for at least one symptom. Frequency and burden of symptoms correlated well (median Kendall’s Tau of 0.84 with a range of correlations of 0.73–0.95). Frequency and willingness to undergo treatment correlated less (median Kendall’s Tau of 0.35, range 0.24–0.57), as well as burden and willingness to undergo treatment (median Kendall’s Tau, range 0.28–0.61). CONCLUSION The top five symptoms most often reported by patients with diffuse glioma during stable disease were: fatigue, memory problems, reduced physical fitness, concentration problems and drowsiness. These symptoms may serve as a roadmap for future research on treatment strategies to alleviate these symptoms. SUPPORT/DISCLOSURE This project is funded by The Anita Veldman Foundation (CCA-2019-2-21).