The effect of surgical resection to the survival of newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients

Background: Glioblastoma is the most common glial tumor of the central nervous system. It is one of the tumor which has shorter survival time. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the extent of resection was associated with increased survival rate.Material and Method: We retrospectively analyzed preoperative, operative and postoperative treatment modalities of 79 patients who underwent Glioblastoma resection at Yeditepe University Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, (n=106) to determineoverall survival. For each case we have reported age, sex, presenting symptoms and signs, tumor location, operation dates, postoperative follow up, recurrence and survival time (between first operation date to last control date), preoperative Karnofsky performance scores (KPS), early postoperative and second month control KPS, chemotherapy and radiotherapy types and durations and exitus reasons were recorded. We have calculated tumor and remnant volumes based on MR imaging results. We used ?Osirix Dicom Viewer? for the calculation of the preoperative and postoperative tumor volumes. All patients were divided into three groups according to extent of the surgical resection (>%98, %90-98, <%90). For these groups postoperative mean survival time and survival rates were analyzed statistically. Extend of the resection, age (<65, ?65), sex, preoperative KPS (<70, >70) were significant independent predictors and survival analyzes were performed.Results: In our series the mean survival was 22.8 month (95% CI 18.99 ? 26.61 month). Mean survival of the patients younger than 65 years old was higher than, mean survival ofthe patients over 65 years old, however this was not statistically significant (p= 0.276). The difference of the mean survival of patients with KPS score over 70 and below 70 was not statistically significant (p= 0.202). In the group of patients with 98% or more tumor resection the mean survival was significantly higher (p= 0.045) than the group of patientswith 90-98% and <90% tumor resection.Conclusion: In the treatment of patients with glioblastoma, radical resection prolongs the survival rate and quality of the life of patients.