Prognostic factors of survival in Moroccan patients with Glioblastoma

Abstract

Background: Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive type of glioma and has the poorest survival. Some parameters have been identified as potential prognostic factors for patients with glioblastoma. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of clinical, tumor and treatment factors on overall survival in Moroccan patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

Methods: In this study, we retrospectively analyzed data from 89 Moroccan patients with newly diagnosed Glioblastoma (54 males and 35 females). The effect of different prognostic factors on survival was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier method and log rank test for univariate analysis; and Cox regression method for multivariate analysis to identify the independent prognostic factors.

Results: The Median age of patients at diagnosis was 52 years (range 11-84 years) and the male/female ratio was 1.54/1. The median of pre-operative Karnofsky Performance Score (KPS) was 70 (95% CI: 60-70) and the median overall survival was 12 months (95%: 9-13 months). According to univariate analysis, age (p = 0.0088), KPS (p = 0.0001) and radiation treatment (p < 0.0001) parameters were significantly associated with survival. In addition, the tumor size, KPS and radiotherapy parameters were significantly associated with survival in multivariate Cox analysis (p < 0.05). However, extent of tumor resection, gender, chemotherapy and clinical history delay factors were not found significant in both analyses (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Our results showed the strong prognostic value of age, performance score, and treatment with radiotherapy for glioblastoma patients validating the results published in previous studies. This work could contribute towards informing further research on prognostic variables for patients with glioblastoma.