Pretransplant emotional and cognitive functioning are important determinants of long-term outcome and quality of life (QOL) in BMT patients. In addition, a few patients undergoing BMT develop short-term memory difficulties and mood disturbance that may persist. Pretransplant identification of patients at risk for neurobehavioral difficulties may guide early interventions during hospitalization. Posttransplant assessment may then be used to develop rehabilitation programs and other interventions for individuals with persisting complaints.

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Perceived quality of life (QOL) was evaluated in a group of 50 patients with primary brain tumors. Participants completed two QOL measures and a demographic profile. Age was found not to be an important factor in differentiating QOL in these patients. All areas of QOL were found to be affected adversely by one or more of five factors: being female, being divorced, having bilateral tumor involvement, having received chemotherapy, and having a poor performance status. Pearson product-moment correlations conducted on the subscale and total scores of the two QOL instruments revealed that the two scales measure different QOL aspects and overlap in only a few areas. This may be related to the different measurement paradigms that these two instruments represent. This study is one of the first to evaluate the multidimensional aspects of QOL in patients with primary brain tumors, an understudied group. A prospective study of QOL in this group, already underway at the authors' institution, is needed to evaluate comprehensively the effect of different treatments and interventions on the QOL functioning of primary brain tumor patients. Additionally, this study shows that the choice of QOL instruments is very important and needs to be driven by the research question.

BACKGROUND.Erythrocyte changes from aerobic exercise training were examined during radiation treatment of breast cancer.METHODS.Twenty sedentary females with breast carcinoma who were ages 35 to 65 years were randomized to aerobic exercise (AE) of walking for 20 to 45 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week, at 50% to 70% of measured maximum heart rates or to placebo stretching (PS) activities 3 to 5 days per week during 7 weeks of radiation treatment. Measures were obtained 1 week before and after the radiation regimen. Serum blood analyses, through complete blood counts, measured red blood cell counts (RBC), hematocrit (HCT), and hemoglobin (HB). Peak aerobic capacity (peak VO2) was measured by exercise testing with oxygen uptake analysis to assess training. A Wilcoxon Mann‐Whitney U test examined changes between groups (P ≤ .05 for significance).RESULTS.AE peak VO2 increased by 6.3% (P = .001) and PS decreased by 4.6% (P = .083). RBC increased in AE from 4.10 to 4.21 million cells/μL and declined in PS from 4.30 to 4.19 million cells/μL; the between‐group differences were significant (P = .014). HCT increased in AE from 38.0% to 38.8% and declined in PS from 37.40% to 36.50%; the between‐group differences were significant (P = .046). HB increased in AE from 12.3 to 12.4 g/dL and declined in PS from 12.25 to 11.77 g/dL; the between‐group differences were significant (P = .009).CONCLUSIONS.The results of the current study suggest that moderate intensity aerobic exercise appears to maintain erythrocyte levels during radiation treatment of breast cancer compared with the declines observed in nontraining individuals. These findings suggest a safe, economical method to improve fitness and maintain erythrocytes in women during radiation treatment of breast cancer. Cancer 2006. © 2006 American Cancer Society.