title: Treatment of glioblastoma multiforme in elderly patients. Clinico-therapeutic remarks in 22 patients older than 80 years.
abstract: We report our remarks on 22 patients, 80 years of age and older, who were treated for glioblastoma multiforme. The 16 patients who underwent a multimodality treatment (surgery + radiotherapy + chemotherapy) had an average survival of 16.7 months versus the 5.8 months of the 8 patients treated with biopsy followed by radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy (log-rank test, P < 0.001). Moreover, we point out the importance of MGMT hypermethylation as a significant prognostic factor: the 9 patients with nonmethylated MGMT had a mean survival of 7.7 months vs. 17.9 months of the 13 patients with the MGMT promoter methylated (log-rank test, P = 0.0006). Several studies have pointed out age as an important negative factor for the outcome of elderly patients affected by glioblastoma multiforme. Elderly patients with a diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme are thus generally excluded from clinical trials of treatment for the neoplasm, because it is a common opinion that the prognosis for such patients is particularly poor. On the contrary, according to our clinical and surgical experience, we firmly believe that patients older than 80 years with a histologically proven diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme and in good health conditions (Karnofsky performance status >60) should be treated in the same way as younger patients.
authors.affiliation: Neurosurgery, Department of Neurological Sciences, University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy. salvati.maurizio@libero.it
authors.forename: Manolo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piccirilli
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bistazzoni
authors.forename: Franco Maria
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Gagliardi
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Landi
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santoro
authors.forename: Felice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giangaspero
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salvati
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000628:therapy; D019853:O(6)-Methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D019853:O(6)-Methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase