Quality of life and unmet needs of patients with brain tumors : a dyadic perspective

The present study was aimed at evaluating quality of life (QoL) in brain cancer patients and correlated aspects. In particular, we aimed to assess QoL, mood state and unmet needs, in order to describe the psychological adjustment process to the cancer and to find out critical aspects. Since the proxies are particular important in the context of brain cancer, we also aimed to study the proxies’ perspective. We were interested in studying the ability of proxies to evaluate patients QoL, and to analyze possible relationships between this ability and the quality of the adjustment process. Methods: We obtained data from 85 patient-proxy couples during chemotherapy treatment at the National Neurological Institute “C. Besta” of Milan, Italy. Results: Our date depict a difficult adjustment process to the illness, even though positive elements emerged. Indeed, patients reported a satisfying self-perceived quality of life. Further, depression symptoms seem to affect a minority of our patients. Our data also suggest that proxies might not be always considered reliable information carriers, since the perspectives of patients and proxies may be greatly different.