Cognitive functions in low-grade gliomas: disease and treatment effects. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • BACKGROUND: The role of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the treatment of low-grade gliomas (LGG) is controversial regarding their effect on survival and the development of neurotoxicity. The few published studies examining adverse treatment effects on cognition revealed conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: To assess cognitive functioning in LGG patients who received conformal radiation therapy (RT), chemotherapy, or no treatment. DESIGN: 40 LGG patients participated in the study; 16 patients had RT +/- chemotherapy, and 24 patients had no treatment. All patients underwent a neuropsychological evaluation. APOE genotype was obtained in 36 patients who were classified in two groups based on the presence or absence of at least one apolipoprotein E small je, Ukrainian-4 (APOE small je, Ukrainian-4) allele. RESULTS: Treated LGG patients had lower scores than untreated patients on several cognitive domains; patients who completed treatment at intervals greater than 3 years and had long disease duration had significantly lower scores on the Non-Verbal Memory domain. Antiepileptic polytherapy, treatment history, and disease duration jointly contributed to low Psychomotor domain scores. 62% of treated patients showed white matter confluence on MRI, whereas only 9% of the untreated patients had such changes. Preliminary comparisons between APOE small je, Ukrainian-4 carriers (n = 9) and non-carriers (n = 27) on cognitive domain scores revealed no statistically significant differences, but APOE small je, Ukrainian-4 carriers had lower mean scores on the Verbal Memory domain than did non-small je, Ukrainian-4 carriers. CONCLUSIONS: RT +/- chemotherapy, disease duration, and antiepileptic treatment contributed to mild cognitive difficulties in LGG patients.

publication date

  • July 19, 2006

Research

keywords

  • Brain Neoplasms
  • Cognition Disorders
  • Glioma

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 33845701214

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1007/s11060-006-9212-3

PubMed ID

  • 16850104

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 81

issue

  • 2