Authors call for more aggressive treatments to be considered for glioblastoma patients
THURSDAY, June 27, 2019 (HealthDay News) — The percentage of patients achieving five-year survival following a glioblastoma diagnosis remains both steady and low, according to a study published online June 19 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
J. Nathan Cantrell, from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, and colleagues used data from the National Cancer Database (from 2004 through 2009) to identify 48,652 cases of glioblastoma with histopathological confirmation. Clinical, institutional, and treatment-related factors independently associated with overall survival longer than five years were investigated.
The researchers found that 2,249 patients (4.6 percent) achieved five-year survival. In multivariable analysis, factors associated with odds of improved five-year overall survival included younger age, female sex, fewer medical comorbidities, nonwhite race, highest median income quartile, left-sided tumors and tumors outside the brainstem, and treatment with radiotherapy (P < 0.05 for all). During the six-year study period, the percentage of patients surviving five years remained relatively unchanged (P = 0.97).
“Despite improvements in median and short-term overall survival shown in recent large clinical trials for glioblastoma, the percentage of patients with glioblastoma achieving five-year overall survival remains low,” conclude the authors.
Two authors disclosed ties to the medical technology industry.
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