Associations With Changes in Disease-Specific Quality of Life Following Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma.

OBJECTIVE

To examine associations with changes in quality-of-life (QOL) outcomes following treatment of vestibular schwannoma (VS) using stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

STUDY DESIGN

Prospective longitudinal study.

SETTING

Tertiary academic center.

METHODS

Patients who were treated for sporadic VS using SRS from 2015 to 2022 were included. QOL outcomes were measured using the disease-specific Penn Acoustic Neuroma QOL (PANQOL) scale.

RESULTS

Seventy-nine patients with pre-SRS and at least one post-SRS PANQOL assessments were available for analysis. The mean change in total PANQOL scores was -2 (SD 13) on a 100-point scale. The mean duration between assessments was 4.6 years (SD 2.0). Age at SRS, sex, and SRS treatment doses were not significantly associated with changes in total PANQOL scores. Total PANQOL scores improved a mean of 4 points for patients with tumors confined to the internal auditory canal but declined a mean of 5 points for patients with tumors extending into the cerebellopontine angle (P = .01); however, these changes did not exceed the minimum clinically significant threshold of 11 points. The correlation coefficient between treated tumor volume at SRS and change in total PANQOL scores was -0.30 (P = .007). Changes in PANQOL total (P = .5) and hearing domain (P = .3) scores for patients who maintained serviceable hearing or progressed to nonserviceable hearing did not significantly differ.

CONCLUSION

Tumor extent and treated volume at SRS had a statistically significant but likely not clinically important impact on total PANQOL scores. Progression to nonserviceable hearing did not have a significant impact on PANQOL total or hearing domain scores.