Objective:

To measure the impact of having an active neurologic disease (ND) in the quality of life (QoL) of patients with systemic cancer (non-CNS cancer).

Background:

The burden from neurologic symptoms in cancer patients has scantly been studied

Design/Methods:

Patients with systemic cancer sent for Neuro-oncologic evaluation at a single cancer center were prospectively invited to respond the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BN20 questionnaires. Associations of the questionnaire´s items were blindly measured for the following groups: active ND (+) or not (ND-) and active cancer (AC+) or not (AC-)

Results:

Of 205 patients, mean age 55.6 ± 15.8 years, 122 (60%) had a ND+ and 107 (52%) an AC+.  QoL, measured by the QLQ-C30, was significantly worse in the ND+ group in the following scales/items: role (P <0.001), pain (P < 0.001), fatigue (P <0.001), cognitive (P < 0.001), appetite loss (P = 0.003), N/V (P = 0.006), emotional (P = 0.007), physical (P = 0.021), global health (P = 0.021), and insomnia (P = 0.040). For the BN20 scales/items, the ND+ group had worse scores in headache (P < 0.001), weakness (P < 0.001), motor (P = 0.002), visual (P = 0.015), alopecia (P = 0.019), and communication (P = 0.039)

Conclusions:

In cancer patients quality of life is significantly worse for patients with an active neurologic disease; therefore, an early referral and approach is recommended for all patients with neurologic symptoms