ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Journal of Neurosurgical Sciences 2001 December;45(4):195-201

Copyright © 2001 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Proposal of a clinico-histological “glioma score” as a prognostic index in high-grade glioma patients. Preliminary observations in a series of 80 cases

Mastronardi L. ¹, Guiducci A. ², Puzzilli F. ¹

¹ Division of Neurosurgery, Sandro Pertini Hospital, Rome; ² Institute of Pathological Anatomy, Civilian Hospital, Terni, Italy

Background. Despite of sev­er­al mul­ti­mod­al treat­ments, malig­nant gli­o­mas ­still ­have a ­poor out­come. In ­order to iden­ti­fy sub­groups of ­patients ­with dif­fer­ent prog­no­sis, we pro­pose a clin­i­cal and his­to­log­i­cal ­score (GS).
Methods. Eighty con­sec­u­tive ­patients oper­at­ed on for a ­high-­grade gli­o­ma and treat­ed ­with adju­vant ther­a­py ­entered the ­study. In rela­tion to age at diag­no­sis, pre­op­er­a­tive Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), and MIB-1 ­index, ­patients ­have ­been split­ted in 4 ­groups (GS 0-III).
Results. The over­all ­mean sur­vi­val of the ­entire ­cohort was 18.2 ­months (­median 12). Patients ­with GS 0 ­have a ­mean sur­vi­val ­rate of 30.0 ­months, ­with GS I 23.1 ­months, ­with GS II 12.1 ­months, and ­with GS III 9.0 ­months (p=0.0001). Moreover, ­mean sur­vi­val ­with a KPS ≥70 was 29.0 in GS 0, 26.0 in GS I, 10.0 in GS II, and 0 in GS III ­patients (p<0.0001).
Conclusions. On the ­basis of ­these pre­lim­i­nary obser­va­tions, we dis­cuss the util­ity of our “gli­o­ma ­score” as a prog­nos­tic indi­ca­tor for ­patients oper­at­ed on for cere­bral malig­nant gli­o­mas and treat­ed ­postoper­a­tive­ly ­with adju­vant ther­a­py.