Quality of life in neurooncology—age matters

Veilleux, Nadia; Goffaux, Philippe; Boudrias, Marie‐Hélène; Mathieu, David; Daigle, Kathya; Fortin, David

doi:10.3171/2010.2.jns091707

Cited by 24 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Ever since the publication of important functional studies such as the brain maps acquired by Ojemann et al in 117 epilepsy patients and showing a great variability in the speech localization, a greater emphasis has been placed on the study of the function, thereby realizing that reliance on topographical anatomy alone is inadequate 54 . Moreover, studies in neuro-oncology are now included as an integral facet of the evaluation of patients quality of life data as well as neuro-cognitive evaluations, leaning toward a more inclusive and integrated view of the patient as an individualwhole [55][56][57] . The concept of brain functioning now involves a dynamic organization of networks connecting several cortical and subcortical areas of the brain 1,58 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tractography in the Study of the Human Brain: A Neurosurgical Perspective

Fortin¹,

Aubin-Lemay²,

Boré

et al. 2012

Can. J. Neurol. Sci.

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in this discipline has been limited due to an incomplete knowledge of the functional anatomy of the brain. This highly integrated organ does not lend itself easily to study, as its morphology does not translate to its function 1 . This caveat was quickly acknowledged by the early neuro-anatomists such as Brodmann, who stated in 1909: "One thing must be stressed quite firmly: henceforth functional localization of the cerebral cortex without the lead of anatomy is utterly impossible in man as in animals… so, first anatomy, and then physiology; but if first physiology, then not without anatomy" 2 . Furthermore, there is now mounting evidence that the brain has the capacity to reorganize its functional networks in the face of an injury, or a ABSTRACT: Background: The brain functions as an integrated multi-networked organ. Complex neurocognitive functions are not attributed to a single brain area but depend on the dynamic interactions of distributed brain areas operating in large-scale networks. This is especially important in the field of neurosurgery where intervention within a spatially localized area may indirectly lead to unwanted effects on distant areas. As part of a preliminary integrated work on functional connectivity, we present our initial work on diffusion tensor imaging tractography to produce in vivo white matter tracts dissection. Methods: Diffusion weighted data and high-resolution T1-weighted images were acquired from a healthy right-handed volunteer (25 years old) on a whole-body 3 T scanner. Two approaches were used to dissect the tractography results: 1) a standard region of interest technique and 2) the use of Brodmann's area as seeding points, which represents an innovation in terms of seeds initiation. Results: Results are presented as tri-dimensional tractography images. The uncinate fasciculus, the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, the inferior fronto-occipital fasiculus, the corticospinal tract, the corpus callosum, the cingulum, and the optic radiations where studied by conventional seeding approach, while Broca's and Wernicke's areas, the primary motor as well as the primary visual cortices were used as seeding areas in the second approach. Conclusions: We report state-of-the-art tractography results of some of the major white matter bundles in a normal subject using DTI. Moreover, we used Brodmann's area as seeding areas for fiber tracts to study the connectivity of known major functional cortical areas.RÉSUMÉ: La tractographie dans l'étude du cerveau humain : perspective neurochirurgicale. Contexte : Le cerveau fonctionne comme un organe constitué en multiréseaux intégrés et les fonctions neurocognitives complexes ne sont pas restreintes à une seule zone du cerveau. Elles dépendent d'interactions dynamiques de différentes régions du cerveau opérant en réseaux de grande envergure. Ceci est particulièrement important dans le domaine de la neurochirurgie où une intervention à l'intérieur d'une zone très localisée peut provoquer indirectement des effets indésirables à distance. Nous présent...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tractography in the Study of the Human Brain: A Neurosurgical Perspective

Fortin¹,

Aubin-Lemay²,

Boré

et al. 2012

Can. J. Neurol. Sci.

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“…The announcement of such a diagnosis and poor prognosis, the effects of the tumor on cognition and functionality, and the toxicity of treatments have rapid and important consequences on the everyday life of patients and their relatives [2,3]. These social, emotional, psychological and physical consequences have already been described [4][5][6], indicating an important quality of life (QoL) alteration at a level that is not normally observed in other cancers [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Due to these major lifestyle disruptions, there is an interest in studying how patients and caregivers handle the problems of daily life and how the Abstract Patients with high-grade gliomas (HGG) and their caregivers have to confront a very aggressive disease that produces major lifestyle disruptions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Coping with a newly diagnosed high-grade glioma: patient-caregiver dyad effects on quality of life

et al. 2016

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Patients with high-grade gliomas (HGG) and their caregivers have to confront a very aggressive disease that produces major lifestyle disruptions. There is an interest in studying the ability of patients and their caregivers to cope with the difficulties that affect quality of life (QoL). We examine, in a sample of patient-caregiver dyads in the specific context of newly diagnosed cases of HGG, whether the QoL of patients and caregivers is influenced by the coping processes they and their relatives use from a specific actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). This cross-sectional study involved 42 dyads with patients having recent diagnoses of HGG and assessed in the time-frame between diagnosis and treatment initiation. The self-reported data included QoL (Patient-Generated Index, EORTC QLQ-C30, and CareGiver Oncology QoL), emotional status, and coping strategies (BriefCope). The APIM was used to test the dyadic effects of coping strategies on QoL. Coping strategies, such as social support, avoidance, and problem solving, exhibited evidence of either an actor effect (degree to which the individual's coping strategies are associated with their own QoL) or partner effect (degree to which the individual's coping strategies are associated with the QoL of the other member of the dyad) for patients or caregivers. For positive-thinking coping strategies, actor and partner effect were not observed. This study emphasizes that the QoL for patients and their caregivers was directly related to the coping strategies they used. This finding suggests that targeted interventions should be offered to help patients and their relatives to implement more effective coping strategies.

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“…Large tumors were also associated with poorer self-assessed social support, which would be consistent with evidence that more severe clinical conditions are more difficult to care for than less severe conditions, and thus lead to the experience of less satisfying social care 19 . Interestingly, a close relationship between tumor volume and social dimensions of quality of life was also observed by Salo et al 16 . In their study, the authors found that, among a group of brain tumor patients presenting with varied tumor grades, larger tumors were associated with more pain and greater social isolation at baseline (i.e., preoperative visit).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…Before running these correlations, however, we controlled for potential confounds by detrending all of our QOL scores from the effects of age and tumor location. Age and tumor location were chosen as control variables because they can influence QOL independently from the effects of tumor volume 16,17 . Detrending was carried out using linear regression such that age and tumor location were simultaneously entered as predictors of T1 QOL.…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%