The MD Anderson Symptom Inventory brain tumor module (MDASI-BT) is a site-specific MDASI module. Along with the core MDASI’s 13 symptom items and 6 interference items, the MDASI-BT also assesses 9 symptoms specific to brain tumors:

weakness on one side of the body

difficulty understanding

difficulty speaking

seizures

difficulty concentrating

problems with vision

change in appearance

change in bowel pattern (diarrhea or constipation)

irritability

The purposes of a study were to identify and compare symptom clusters in patients with meningioma and glioma, and to assess and compare predictors of quality of life (QoL) in both patient groups.

Data were collected using the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory Brain Tumour Module, the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General, and the Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS). Of the 158 participating patients, 77 had meningioma and 81 had glioma.

Four symptom clusters were identified with 55.4% total variance in patients with meningioma. These clusters were 1) physical, 2) cognitive, 3) elimination-appearance, and 4) motor-sensory symptoms. In patients with glioma, four clusters with a total variance of 67.3% were identified: 1) treatment-related, 2) cognitive, 3) appearance-elimination, and 4) gastrointestinal symptoms. Predictors of QoL were KPS score (β = 0.41, p < .001), cognitive symptom cluster (β = -0.36, p < .001), and physical symptom cluster (β = -0.32, p = .001) in patients with meningioma whereas treatment-related symptom cluster (β = -0.55, p < .001) was identified as the predictor of QoL in patients with glioma.

This study demonstrates that the type and composition of symptom clusters differed between patients with meningioma and glioma. In addition, data provide evidence that even when the participants reported mild symptoms, these clusters could be used to predict QoL in patients with meningioma and glioma ¹⁾.