QL-12 * HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH RECURRENT HIGH-GRADE GLIOMA RECEIVING INTRA-ARTERIAL CARBOPLATIN CHEMOTHERAPY FOR DISEASE CONTROL

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Prognosis for recurrent glioblastoma remains poor, due to which aggressive treatment modalities are sometimes pursued for modest survival benefits. For a malignancy with such dire outcomes, purpose of treatment should extend well beyond prolonging survival, with additional focus on palliation of symptoms and maintenance of quality of life (QOL). We report here the effect of intra-arterial (IA) carboplatin chemotherapy on QOL and treatment related adverse reactions for patients with recurrent glioblastoma. METHODS: Recurrent glioblastoma patients treated with IA carboplatin with/without Avastin were enrolled in this study. QOL was measured at Baseline, Month 1, Month 2, Month 4, and Month 6 with EORTC QLQ-30 & BN-20 questionnaires. Variations in scores of 7 selected domains expected to be most affected in glioblastoma patients were studied. These 7 domains were role functioning, social functioning, visual disorder, global-QOL, motor dysfunction, drowsiness, and communication deficit. RESULTS: Ten patients thus far have completed 6 months of follow-up in this study. In this cohort, most prevalent neurological complications were headaches and focal seizures. Seven patients reported fatigue during therapy. Procedure-related local (e.g. groin hematoma, bleeding at catheter insertion site) as well as distant (e.g. visual deficit) complications were noticed in a few patients. Grade 4 thrombocytopenia was observed in 1 patient. Longitudinal global-QOL scores were maintained or improved in a majority of patients over the 6-month follow-up period. Improvement in scores in the role function domain was observed in 9 out of 10 patients. CONCLUSION: IA carboplatin chemotherapy for treatment of recurrent glioblastoma is a relatively safe procedure associated with predominantly transient physiological and neurological complications. In this small study cohort, no significant detrimental effects on QOL scores were noticed in the seven preselected domains. Rather, an improvement in global QOL scores was observed in a majority of patients.