Analysis of prognostic factors in the patients with glioblastoma

Abstract

Objective：The prognosis for patients with glioblastoma remained dismal despite significant advancement of neurosurgery, neuroradiology and radiation-oncology. Various factors, such as young age, high preoperative performance score have been known to prolong the survival time, but the extent of surgical resection has been in debate. The aim of this study is to investigate prognostic factors related to the survival time in the patients with glioblastoma. Methods：We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and radiological data of 51 patients with glioblastoma. The relationship between clinical, radiological and therapeutic factors and survival time of patients with glioblastoma was investigated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results：The overall median survival time was 18.4 months. Significant favorable prognostic factors associated with prolongation of survival time were younger age(less than 45 years), adjuvant chemotherapy and tumor location(not involved eloquent area) with multivariate analysis. The extent of surgical removal and adjuvant brachytherapy additionally affected survival time with univariate analysis. Conclusion：According to our results, we suggest that the multimodality treatment including maximal surgical resection, conventional radiation therapy , brachytherapy, and chemotherapy should be performed to prolong the survival time of the patients with glioblastoma.