Let’s talk brains: review of care pathways for communication management post brain tumour
Reviewed by Anna Volkmer

One in five people with a brain tumour have speech and language difficulties such as aphasia – a language impairment that can result in difficulties using and understanding words and sentences and participating in conversations. This paper describes a scoping review to identify the evidence for communication management across the continuum of care for people with brain tumours. A systematic search of Medline, CINAHL, PsychInfo and The Cochrane Library identified 1500 papers. After screening against the study criteria, 14 full text papers published between 1997 and 2022 were included in the review. Based on small sample sizes, some guidance was provided on management of aphasia but only one paper provided guidance on cognitive communication difficulties and none on speech impairments. Many papers highlighted difficulties in sensitivity of assessment tools and relevance to this population. The authors conclude that there is an urgent need for further research to inform clinical guidance in this area.

Scoping review of communication impairment management in adults with brain tumours.
Coleman M, Brogan E, D’Souza S.
INT J SPEECH-LANG PATHOL
2025 [ePub ahead of print].