CAPO Award

Award for Excellence in Psychosocial Oncology

This annual award is presented to a member of the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology (CAPO) to acknowledge the important work of psychosocial oncology professionals. CAPO members are invited to submit abstracts, for the annual CAPO conference. Abstracts may reflect clinical practice, education or research related to the neuro-oncology population.

Award Amount: $1,500.00 (along with a framed recognition certificate)

2011 CAPO Award Winner

Congratulations to Dr. Matias Mariani, the recipient of the 2011 CAPO Award. Dr. Mariani's research was titled, "Aphasia in patients with primary brain tumours: A neuropsychological approach."

Cognitive impairments significantly affect the quality of life of patients undergoing or having completed cancer treatment. Although cognitive deficits may be present as adverse effects of treatment to other cancer sites, the most substantial deficits are observed in patients with brain tumours. Language deficits are common among those affected by brain tumours and tend to be associated with declines in communication, mood and ability to perform activities of daily living. A neuropsychological assessment serves to evaluate and quantify functioning issues leading to an optimized treatment plan.

This presentation outlines the neuropsychological profiles of 5 patients with left-sided primary brain tumours.

The goals are as follows:

• To review the classification of aphasia syndromes.
• To provide framework for evaluating language disorders via neuropsychological assessment.
• To differentiate between various disorders that present with communication problems.
• To provide strategies to rehabilitate cognitive deficits (including language) and improve quality of life in patients with primary brain tumours.

2010 CAPO Award Winner

Congratulations to the recipient of the 2010 award: Dr. Kim Edelstein, a Neuropsychologist with Princess Margaret Hospital for her work researching the neurocognitive late effects of treatment in adult survivors of childhood cancer.

2009 CAPO Award Winners

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2009 award: Dr. Robert Olson, Hannah Carolan, Ann-Lousie Ellwood, Maureen Parkinson, Kyle Ferguson, Dr. Grant Iverson and Michael McKenzie for their research, Comparison of Two Cognitive Screening Measures, the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), in patients with brain tumours.

Identifying cognitive impairment is important in patients with brain tumours. Because neuropsychological evaluations are usually not available, brief screening measures are often used. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is most commonly employed, despite no validation in this setting. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is an alternative. In this study, the research team compared the sensitivity and specificity of these screening measures for identifying cognitive impairment.

The recent Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology Conference was held in Vancouver, British Columbia during the week of April 1st, 2009. Congratulations and thank you so much to all of the psychosocial oncology professionals who do so much in the fight against brain tumours.

2008 CAPO Award

In May 2008 Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada Award in support of Psychosocial Oncology Excellence was presented to Dr. Guy Pelletier and Tracey Wornsbecker at the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology national conference.

The duo received their award for their research entitled, Quality of Life of Spousal Caregivers of Primary Malignant Brain Tumour Patients. The cross-sectional study documented negative outcomes such as emotional distress and relationship adjustment problems experienced by the spouses of patients with primary malignant brain tumours and also explored the determinants of the problems and the extent to which they correlated with each other.Congratulations to Dr. Pelletier and Ms. Wornsbecker.