SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT/QUALITY OF LIFE
Authors: A. A. Acquaye, E. Vera-Bolanos, M. R. Gilbert, T. S. Armstrong, L. Lin, C. Amidei, M. Lovely, J. Arzbaecher, M. Page, K. Mogensen, K. Lupica, M. E. Maher, T. S. Armstrong, M. Won, J. S. Wefel, M. R. Gilbert, S. Pugh, M. M. Wendland, D. G. Brachman, P. D. Brown, I. R. Crocker, H. I. Robins, R. J. Lee, M. Mehta, N. Arvold, Y. Wang, C. Zigler, D. Schrag, F. Dominici, F. Boele, L. Douw, M. de Groot, H. van Thuijl, W. Cleijne, J. Heimans, M. Taphoorn, J. Reijneveld, M. Klein, A. Bunevicius, S. Tamasauskas, A. Tamasauskas, V. Deltuva, R. Bunevicius, J. Cahill, L. Lin, T. Armstrong, A. Acquaye, E. Vera-Bolanos, M. Gilbert, N. Padhye, J. Chan, J. Clarke, K. Lawton, J. Rabbitt, A. DeSilva, M. Prados, M. Rosen, L. Cher, E. Diamond, A. Applebaum, G. Corner, A. DeRosa, W. Breitbart, L. DeAngelis, P. Hoogendoorn, S. Ikuta, Y. Muragaki, T. Maruyama, M. Nitta, M. Tamura, S. Okamoto, H. Iseki, Y. Okada, M. Lacouture, M. E. Davis, G. Elzinga, N. Butowski, D. Tran, J. Villano, E. Wong, D. Legge, L. Cher, D. Legge, L. Cher, K. Mills, L. Lin, A. Acquaye, E. Vera-Bolanos, M. Gilbert, T. Armstrong, M. Lovely, D. Sullivan, S. Mueller, H. Fullerton, K. Stratton, W. Leisenring, G. Armstrong, R. Weathers, M. Stovall, R. Goldsby, C. Sklar, L. Robison, K. Krull, A. Pace, V. Villani, S. Focarelli, D. Benincasa, A. Benincasa, C. M. Carapella, A. Pompili, A. M. Peiffer, A. Burke, C. M. Leyer, E. Shing, W. T. Kearns, W. H. Hinson, D. Case, S. R. Rapp, E. G. Shaw, M. D. Chan, E. Porensky, R. Cavaliere, H. Newton, A. Shilds, S. Burgess, A. Ravelo, F. Taylor, I. Mazar, L. Abrey, A. Rooney, C. Graham, H. McKenzie, M. Fraser, M. MacKinnon, S. McNamara, R. Rampling, A. Carson, R. Grant, A. Rooney, L. Heimans, S. Woltz, S. Kerrigan, S. McNamara, R. Grant, M. Seibl-Leven, K. Wittenstein, G. Rohn, R. Goldbrunner, M. Timmer, J. Kennedy, W. Sherman, I. Sen-Gupta, I. Garic, M. Macken, E. Gerard, J. Raizer, S. Schuele, M. Grontoft, G. Stragliotto, M. J. Taphoorn, R. Henriksson, A. Bottomley, T. Cloughesy, W. Wick, W. Mason, F. Saran, R. Nishikawa, A. Ravelo, M. Hilton, O. L. Chinot, W. Trad, T. Simpson, K. Wright, T. Tran, C. Choong, M. Barton, E. Hovey, K. Robinson, E.-S. Koh, E. Vera-Bolanos, A. A. Acquaye, P. D. Brown, C. Chung, M. R. Gilbert, J. Vardy, T. S. Armstrong, T. Walbert, T. Mendoza, E. Vera-Bolanos, M. Gilbert, A. Acquaye, T. Armstrong, T. Walbert, M. Glantz, L. Schultz, V. K. Puduvalli, M. Oudenhoven, C. Farin, R. Hoffman, T. Armstrong, M. Ewend, J. Wu
Journal: Neuro-Oncology (2013)

BACKGROUND: Patients diagnosed with a life threatening illness generally feel they have limited options in improving quality of life during this unexpected period in their lives.Learning to cope with such a debilitating disease can be difficult.. Being hopeful is often considered an important factor in personal adjustments but is plagued by illness-related uncertainty.We studied the relationship of Hope to disease status and symptom burden in primary brain tumor (PBT).METHODS: A cross-sectional sample of adult PBT patients completed the Hearth Hope Index (HHI).Data collection: patient completed demographic form, an investigator completed clinician checklist, the HHI, a 12-item assessment of hopefulness with 3 subscales (temporality and future, positive readiness/expectancy and interconnectedness).Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample and HHI scores.Correlations between clinical characteristics, symptom burden and interference were explored.RESULTS: 71 patients (mean age 44.77(range 22 -78) participated in the study.Participants were primarily white (89.4%), male (56.3%) and married (74.6%) with a diagnoses of malignant glioma (glioblastoma, 38%) and no tumor recurrence(53.5%).Average HHI score was 41.09(range 13-48), subscales 13.69(range 4-16), with internal consistency of .0.70.Patients on active treatment had similar average hope scores but a wider range(range 13-48 vs. range 34-48) of scores than those in follow-up.Patients with recurrent tumors had lower total and subscale HHI scores.HHI Total score(r ¼ 20.31) and HHI Temporality(r ¼ 20.41) were negatively correlated with MDASI-BT Symptom Severity and HHI total(r ¼ 20.39), temporality(r ¼ 20.49) and interconnectedness (r ¼ 20.29) subscale scores were negatively correlated with MDASI-BT interference subscales.CONCLUSIONS: As expected, patients not on active treatment and without tumor recurrence reported higher levels of hope than their counterparts.Furthermore, the results indicate high symptom burden and interference is associated with lower hope scores.Future studies are needed to focus on this relationship to implement ways to improve one's coping skills in dealing with diagnoses and treatment changes.