Clinicopathological features of malignant glial tumors and evaluation of survival data

Objective: Malignant glial tumors are the most common and most lethal group in primary brain tumors. The most important prognostic factors of the malignant glial tumors are histological diagnosis, patient age and performance score. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the data of patients diagnosed with malignant glial tumor and investigated the relationship between histopathologic stage and treatment response and survival datas. Materials and Methods: The data of 155 patients over the age of 18 who were followed in the Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital Oncology Clinic between 1 January 2006 and 1 January 2017 were retrospectively assessed. Patients' demographic, pathological datas, treatment modalities and patient survival time were included to the study. Findings: 98 of the patients were male and 57 were female. Male / female ratio was of 1.7 / 1. The mean age of the patients was 51.2 ± 12.5. Glioblastoma multiforme was the most common subtype with 68.4% ratio. Ninety two percent of the cases had no familial history of cancer. In high grade glial tumors, necrosis was significantly higher than in those with lower stage (P = 0.001). The median Ki-67 value was found to be significantly higher in the high-grade glial tumors than in the other groups. [15 (min 0-max 90) and 7 (min 0-maks 80)]. Twenty one percent of the cases had recurrence and 16.7% had progression after surgery. The median time to the recurrence was 11.4 months. There was a significant difference in survival between high-grade tumors (median 10.3 months) and other glial tumors (median 16.2 months). (P = 0.012) The survival time was found to be significantly lower in the group of patients above 65 year comparing with younger age group (Median 5,3 months vs. median 13,9 months). Conclusion: This study compares the pathologic subtypes of malignant glial tumors with the histopathologic characteristics, patient characteristics, treatment response and prognosis. There was no significant difference between high and low stage tumors in the presence of residual disease, relapse status, family history of cancer, alcohol and smoking. The incidence and survival rates of malignant glial tumors were found to be consistent with the literature. Key words: malignant glial tumor, glioblastome multiforme, WHO grading system, survival