Artikel
Analysis of a platform for exchange of patients’ expertise in TTFields practice to improve quality-of-life in high-grade glioma patients
Analyse einer Plattform zum Erfahrungsaustausch von Patienten mit TTFields-Therapie zur Verbesserung der Lebensqualität von Patienten mit hochgradigen Gliom
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Autoren
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Almuth F. Keßler
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Judith Weiland
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Vera Dufner
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Nadine Lilla
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Thomas Linsenmann
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Thomas Westermaier
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Carsten Hagemann
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Ralf-Ingo Ernestus
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Mario Löhr
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Würzburg, Deutschland
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Elisabeth Jentschke
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Abteilung für Neurochirurgie und Umfassendes Krebszentrum, Würzburg, Deutschland
| Veröffentlicht: | 26. Juni 2020 |
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Gliederung
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Objective: Glioblastoma (GBM) Patients and their Relatives (PaR) face tremendous distress and psychological burden due to limited survival and neurological/neuropsychological deficits. Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields, alternating electric fields at 200 kHz) are a recently established therapy for treatment of newly diagnosed and recurrent GBM. TTFields allows PaR to actively contribute to therapy, but does require concerted attention. Our clinical experience shows an urgent need for personal exchange in communicating with GBM patients. Establishing patient-driven support groups is limited by the rapid clinical progression of GBM. Here, the needs of PaR to implement a platform for personal interaction with focus on TTFields treatment were systematically evaluated and the benefits experienced by PaR were analyzed.
Methods: For this analysis 26 PaR were assessed, including 11 females. Questionnaires to evaluate PaR’s needs regarding meeting other PaR included: preferences for time, frequency, and maximal travel distance, type and frequency of the desired professional support. Quality-of-life and emotional function were determined two weeks before and after implementing this program by the questionnaires PHQ-2 (level of depression) and GAD-2 (level of anxiety). Additionally, perception of everyday life restriction and social exposure were analyzed by a 5-digit-scale.
Results: 95% of the assessed PaR expressed general interest in meeting other patients, relatives, their physician and psychologist, respectively. Therefore, a meeting outside of the hospital was established, accompanied and supported by the treating physician and psychologist. Interestingly, anxiety and depression scores were relatively low at baseline. Additionally, PaR showed a tendency towards even lower scores two weeks after the meeting. Above that, perception regarding social exposure (patients: 2.5 vs 1.7; relatives: 2.3 vs 1.9; scale 1-5) and everyday life (patients: 2.5 vs 2.3; relatives: 2.9 vs 2.3; scale 1-5) was further improved.
Conclusion: This analysis strongly suggests that a communication platform for GBM patients reduces anxiety and depression of PaR and improves the perception of social exposure and everyday life by meeting the assessed PaR’s needs. Data from an additional meeting will be included in the analysis and presented at the annual meeting of the DGNC.
