Quality of life in long-term survivors treated for metastatic medulloblastoma with a hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy (HART) strategy.
PURPOSE
An intensive therapeutic strategy for metastatic medulloblastoma was launched in 1998 in our Institution. The aim of this study was to examine the long-term quality of life (QoL) in survivor patients at least 3 years after the end of the treatment.


METHODS
Patients were asked to complete self-administered QoL questionnaires. An index of physical impairment (IPI) was scored (range 0-100; the lower the score the better) based on clinical objective observations. Patients were divided into two groups (lower IPI group, and higher IPI group) and descriptively compared accordingly.


RESULTS
The study was completed by 25/33 eligible patients. Despite patients with a higher IPI reported worse perceived health condition, they had better emotional and psychological scores than those with a lower IPI in all QoL questionnaires.


CONCLUSION
In our sample, patients with more severe objective and perceived physical impairments reported a better psychosocial QoL, possibly because the greater attention paid to them by society and family contributes to a better adjustment in long-term survivors. On this base, it should be recommended that all survivors receive a strong support as the most impaired patients.
['Veneroni|L|L|', 'Boschetti|L|L|', 'Barretta|F|F|', 'Clerici|C A|CA|', 'Simonetti|F|F|', 'Schiavello|E|E|', 'Biassoni|V|V|', 'Spreafico|F|F|', 'Gandola|L|L|', 'Pecori|E|E|', 'Diletto|B|B|', 'Poggi|G|G|', 'Gariboldi|F|F|', 'Sensi|R|R|', 'Massimino|M|M|']
D000293:Adolescent D002528:Cerebellar Neoplasms D002648:Child D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008527:Medulloblastoma D011788:Quality of Life D011878:Radiotherapy D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D017741:Survivors
Quality of life Survivors Metastatic medulloblastoma HART strategy