Survey on current cognitive practices within the European Low-Grade Glioma Network: towards a European assessment protocol

Background The European Low-Grade Glioma network indi- cated a need to better understand common practices regarding the managing of diffuse low-grade gliomas. This area has experienced great advances in recent years. Method A general survey on the managing of diffuse low- grade gliomas was answered by 21 centres in 11 European countries. Here we focused on specific questions regarding perioperative and intraoperative cognitive assessments. Results More centres referred to the same speech and lan- guage therapist and/or neuropsychologist across all assess- ments; a core of assessment tools was routinely used across centres; fluency tasks were commonly used in the periopera- tive stages, and object naming during surgery; tasks that tapped on attention, executive functions, visuospatial aware- ness, calculation and emotions were sparsely administered; preoperative assessments were performed 1 month or 1 week before surgery; timing for postoperative assessments varied; finally, more centres recommended early rehabilitation, when- ever needed. Conclusions There is an emerging trend towards following similar practices for the management of low-grade gliomas in Europe. Our results are descriptive and formalise current discussions in our group. Also, they contribute towards the development of a European assessment protocol.