Thrombocytopenia limits the feasibility of salvage lomustine chemotherapy in recurrent glioblastoma: a secondary analysis of EORTC 26101.

Background: Thrombocytopenia represents the main cause of stopping alkylating chemotherapy for toxicity. Here, we explored the incidence, and the consequences for treatment exposure and survival, of thrombocytopenia induced by lomustine in recurrent glioblastoma.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the associations of thrombocytopenia with treatment delivery and outcome in EORTC 26101, a randomised trial designed to define the role of lomustine versus bevacizumab versus their combination in recurrent glioblastoma.

Prediagnostic presentations of glioma in primary care: a case-control study.

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of symptoms glioma patients may present with to the general practitioner, and whether these can be distinguished from patients with other CNS disorders or any other condition. Glioma patients were matched to CNS patients and 'other controls' using anonymized general practitioner registries. Prevalences were evaluated in the 5 years prior to diagnosis.

Visual inspection of MR relative cerebral blood volume maps has limited value for distinguishing progression from pseudoprogression in glioblastoma multiforme patients.

Aim: We examined whether visual interpretation of relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) color maps made with dynamic susceptibility-weighted perfusion MRI can reliably distinguish progressive disease (PD) from pseudoprogression (PsPD) in glioblastoma patients during treatment with temozolomide chemoradiation.

Materials & Methods: Magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion-weighted images were evaluated based on visual inspection of rCBV maps. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated to assess if rCBV can reliably differentiate between PD and PsPD, during standard chemoradiation therapy.

Development of an item bank for computerized adaptive testing of self-reported cognitive difficulty in cancer patients.

Background: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group is developing computerized adaptive testing (CAT) versions of each scale of the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). This study aims to develop an item bank for the EORTC QLQ-C30 cognitive functioning scale, which can be used for CAT.

Methods: The complete developmental approach comprised four phases: (I) conceptualization and literature search, (II) operationalization, (III) pretesting, and (IV) field-testing.

Cognitive and radiological effects of radiotherapy in patients with low-grade glioma: long-term follow-up.

Background: Our previous study on cognitive functioning among 195 patients with low-grade glioma (LGG) a mean of 6 years after diagnosis suggested that the tumour itself, rather than the radiotherapy used to treat it, has the most deleterious effect on cognitive functioning; only high fraction dose radiotherapy (>2 Gy) resulted in significant added cognitive deterioration. The present study assesses the radiological and cognitive abnormalities in survivors of LGG at a mean of 12 years after first diagnosis.

Methods: Patients who have had stable disease since the first assessment were invited for follow-up cognitive assessment (letter-digit substitution test, concept shifting test, Stroop colour-word test, visual verbal learning test, memory comparison test, and categoric word fluency).

Health-related quality of life and symptom research in glioblastoma multiforme patients.

Health-related quality of life is increasingly becoming an important end point in cancer research. Until recently, relatively little was known about the health-related quality of life of glioblastoma multiforme patients. This is due to the relative scarcity of this disease compared with other cancers and its dismal prognosis.