Cognitive functioning in meningioma patients: a systematic review

Abstract

This systematic review evaluates relevant findings and methodologic aspects of studies on cognitive functioning in meningioma patients prior to and/or following surgery with or without adjuvant radiotherapy. PubMed and Web of Science electronic databases were searched until December 2015. From 1012 initially identified articles, 11 met the inclusion criteria for this review. Multiple methodological limitations were identified which include the lack of pre-treatment assessments, variations in the number and types of neuropsychological tests used, the normative data used to identify patients with cognitive deficits, and the variety of definitions for cognitive impairment. Study results suggest that most of meningioma patients are faced with cognitive deficits in several cognitive domains prior to surgery. Following surgery, most of these patients seem to improve in cognitive functioning. However, they still have impairments in a wide range of cognitive functions compared to healthy controls. Suggestions are given for future research. Adequate diagnosis and treatment of cognitive deficits may ultimately lead to improved outcome and quality of life in meningioma patients.

Subjective cognitive functioning in patients with a meningioma: Its course and association with objective cognitive functioning and psychological symptoms

“…This is remarkable given the high percentages of brain tumor patients with cognitive complaints found in previous studies . Moreover, we found lower performance for all OCF domains at all time points, which is in line with several studies clearly demonstrating deficits in OCF among meningioma patients …”

“…[9][10][11] Moreover, we found lower performance for all OCF domains at all time points, which is in line with several studies clearly demonstrating deficits in OCF among meningioma patients. [6][7][8] Methodological differences and limitations may underlie differences in findings between our study and previous research evaluating SCF, including heterogeneous cross-sectional samples of brain tumor FIGURE 1 Flowchart of patients. Note: CFQ, cognitive failures questionnaire; NPA, neuropsychological assessment patients [9][10][11] and lack of validated questionnaires.…”

“…Current standard of care consists of neurosurgical resection of the tumor, which most likely relieves initial neurological deficits that result from mass effects of the tumor . However, many patients are left with adverse outcomes, such as fatigue, lower quality of life, and/or impairments in objective cognitive functioning (OCF) …”

“…3 However, many patients are left with adverse outcomes, such as fatigue, 4 lower quality of life, 5 and/or impairments in objective cognitive functioning (OCF). [6][7][8] Although deficits in OCF in meningioma patients, as assessed by neuropsychological tests, have been demonstrated in several studies, [6][7][8] self-reported or subjective cognitive functioning (SCF) has received little attention. The few studies investigating SCF in heterogeneous, cross-sectional samples of brain tumor patients, also including meningioma patients, found high percentages of patients reporting cognitive problems.…”

Quality of life after surgery for intracranial meningioma

“…1,2 Although generally defined histologically as benign, these lesions frequently are associated with neurological complications and decreased quality of life (QOL). [3][4][5] Despite this, to the best of our knowledge only a few studies to date, all of which included relatively small numbers of patients, have explicitly examined QOL among patients with meningioma. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] As the use of imaging has increased throughout the United States, so too has the number of individuals diagnosed with meningioma, with up to 1% of the general adult population estimated to have such a lesion, 1 although many of those patients will remain asymptomatic.…”