Background: Brain tumor survivors often experience long-term neurocognitive and psychosocial challenges that negatively impact their quality of life (QoL). While QoL is a key outcome in neuro-oncology, research in Indian settings, particularly in low-resource contexts, remains scarce. This study aims to assess health-related quality of life and its psychosocial determinants among adult brain tumor survivors using validated patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).
Methods: A cross-sectional study is being conducted at the Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai, India, involving adult brain tumor survivors who completed treatment at least three months prior. PROMs employed include DASS-21 (depression, anxiety, and stress), CI-SAFE (fatigue), ACE-III (cognition), CD-RISC 10 (resilience), WAI (work ability), WHODAS 2.0 (disability), and EORTC QLQ-C30/BN20 (QoL). To date, 25 participants (mean age: 39 years; range: 19–65; 50% male, 50% female) have been enrolled. Descriptive statistics and preliminary analysis were conducted.
Results: Among participants, 54.2% experienced moderate to severe levels of fatigue (extent), and 41.7% reported moderate to severe fatigue (impact). Symptoms of moderate to severe depression, anxiety, and stress were reported by 21%, 29.2%, and 21% respectively. Additionally, 42% demonstrated low resilience, and 16.7% reported disability. Cognitive screening revealed that 62.7% had likely cognitive impairment. Alarmingly, 75% of participants reported low health-related quality of life. Spearman correlation analysis revealed that both fatigue and disability were significantly and negatively correlated with global health status, indicating their substantial impact on quality of life.
Conclusion: Fatigue and disability were found to significantly impact the quality of life among adult brain tumor survivors. A considerable proportion also experienced psychological distress and cognitive difficulties. These findings emphasize the importance of holistic follow-up care. Larger studies are needed to confirm and expand on these results.