Prospective memory and brain metastases: a relevant target for rehabilitation in post-operative patients?

Purpose The study investigated the prospective memory (PM) functioning among patients with brain metastases (BM), eligible for neurosurgy/radiosurgery, and its relationships with depression and quality of life (QoL). Methods This case-healthy-control, cross-sectional study, comprised 160 participants, including 49 patients with BM from various cancers treated with neurosurgery or radiosurgery. They were compared with 111 matched controls on a set of neuropsychological tests, including the MoCA global cognitive test and an experimental PM task ‘PROMESSE’. Participants also completed a depression scale (BDI-II), a generic (SF-12) and a specific (QLQ-C30) QoL instrument for cancer patients. Multivariate analyses were conducted on various PM outcomes, in particular on event-based (EBPM) and time-based (TBPM) PM performances. Results After adjusting for age and socio-cultural level, patients with BM performed worse than the control on the PM task ( p