Abstract
Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain tumor with a short overall survival (OS) in general. The treatment of GBM has evolved over the last decades and is today multimodal including surgical resection followed by radiochemotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy for patients in good performance status. The aim of this study was to evaluate the development of treatment and the outcome for GBM patients at a single regional center.Patients and methods: Survival was studied for 571 patients in our region diagnosed with GBM between 1995 and 2015. Samples from 244 patients out of those treated 2005–2015 have been included in a tissue/blood bank and a clinical database has been set up with basic patient characteristics and details on surgery and non-surgical treatment.Results: The median OS for all patients from 1995 to 2015 was 9.3 months. There was a stepwise improvement from 6.9 to 10.3 months for patients diagnosed 1995–1996 and 2010–2015, respectively (p < .05). The 2-year survival for the same time periods improved from 7% to 18% (p < .01). After introduction of postoperative radiochemotherapy for patients in good performance status in 2005 an increased OS was noted and following implementation of intraoperative 5-aminolevulinic acid the number of tumor resection ≥95% did increase from 33% to 54% (p < .001). Positive prognostic factors for survival were young age, good performance status, absence of inflammatory disease, absence of diabetes or metabolic disease, tumor resection ≥95%, and completion of postoperative radiochemotherapy.Discussion: The results of this study are consistent with earlier results regarding survival and prognostic factors and confirm results from randomized controlled trials in a clinical setting. Despite the improvements made, the prognosis is still dismal and the need for further research on GBM treatment is great.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.