Survival Analysis of Glioblastoma Multiforme

Abstract

Introduction: To evaluate the survival of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). Material and Methods: Patients with<br />a pathological diagnosis of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) between 1 January 1994 and 30 November 2013, were<br />retrospectively reviewed. Inclusion criteria: 1) GBM patients with confirmed pathology, 2) GBM patients were treated<br />by multimodality therapy. Exclusion criteria: 1) GBM patients with unconfirmed pathology, 2) GBM patients with spinal<br />involvement, 3) GBM patients with incomplete data records. Seventy-seven patients were treated by multimodality<br />therapy such as surgery plus post-operative radiotherapy (PORT), post-operative Temozolomide (TMZ) concurrent with<br />radiotherapy (CCRT), post-operative CCRT with adjuvant TMZ. The overall survival was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier<br />method and the log-rank test was used to compare the survival curves. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered to be<br />statistically significant. Results: Seventy-seven patients with a median age of 53 years (range 4-76 years) showed<br />a median survival time (MST) of 12 months. In subgroup analyses, the PORT patients revealed a MST of 11 months<br />and 2 year overall survival (OS) rates were 17.2%, the patients with post-operative CCRT with or without adjuvant<br />TMZ revealed a MST of 23 months and 2 year OS rates were 38.2%. The MST of patients by Recursive Partitioning<br />Analysis (RPA), classifications III, IV, V, VI were 26.8 months, 14.2 months, 9.9 months, and 4.0 months, (p <0.001).<br />Conclusions: The MST of the patients who had post-operative CCRT with or without adjuvant TMZ was better than<br />the PORT group. The RPA classification can be used to predict survival. Multimodality therapy demonstrated the most<br />effective treatment outcome. Temozolomide might be beneficial for GBM patients in order to increase survival time.