Patients with either primary or metastatic brain tumors quite often have cognitive impairment. Maintaining cognitive function is important to brain tumor patients and a decline in cognitive function is generally accompanied by a decline in functional independence and performance status. Cognitive decline can be a result of tumor progression, depression/anxiety, fatigue/sleep dysfunction, or the treatments they have received. It is our opinion that providers treating brain tumor patients should obtain pre-treatment and serial cognitive testing in their patients and offer mitigating and therapeutic interventions when appropriate. They should also support cognition-focused clinical trials.
Keywords: Attention; Brain; Cognition; Memory; Neuropsychology; Radiation.