QOL-18. Worse Quality of Life for Recurrent Glioblastoma Patients Relative to Recurrent Brain Metastasis Patients: An Unmet Need

INTRODUCTION There is growing recognition of the significant toll that malignant brain tumors and associated treatments take on the patient’s quality of life (QoL). Here, we examined the QoL for malignant brain tumor patients who underwent craniotomy for tumor resection and placement of Gammatile (GT), a brachytherapy platform consisting of resorbable collagen sponges embedded with regularly spaced cesium-131. METHODS QoL was assessed using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Brain (FACT-Br). Analysis was performed separately for recurrent glioblastoma (rG) and brain metastasis (rBM) patients. Physical, social, functional, and emotional well-being scores (PWB, SWB, FWB, and EWB) were analyzed separately. For the cross-sectional analysis, we examined all available responses collected at month 0 (the time of resection/GT implantation) and at 1-, 3-, and 6-month post-treatment. For the longitudinal cohort analysis, we compared the responses of the same subject at months 0, 1, 3, and 6. RESULTS FACT-Br responses from 31 recurrent glioblastomas and 37 recurrent brain metastases were available at the six-month follow-up. No significant changes in all FACT-Br domains were observed for rBM patients during the six-month interval. In contrast, rG patients showed notable decreases in SWB and FWB when comparing the responses collected at 0 and 6 months (-3.35, p=0.03 and -3.86, p=0.01, respectively). These findings were recapitulated in our longitudinal cohort analysis, where the reductions in SWB and FWB scores were -7.0 (p=0.014) and -4.74 (p=0.006), respectively. For the FWB, the most notable score reductions were in response to questions related to the ability to work, enjoyment of life, and overall quality of life. For the SWB, the most notable score reductions were in response to questions related to support from friends, family communication, and satisfaction with sexual activity. CONCLUSION FACT-Br assessment revealed unmet functional and social needs in rG patients that were not found in rBM patients.