title: Efficacy of clinical prognostic factors on survival in patients with glioblastoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Glioblastoma is the most common and highest-grade infiltrative astrocytoma. It is usually associated with a bad prognosis. Histological grading is highly predictive of an aggressive behavior, with a mean survival rate of 1 year. Nonetheless, individual patient survival can vary substantially, ranging from 1 month to over 5 years. Several distinct clinical parameters and molecular alterations have recently been described in glioblastoma. The present study compares clinical, radiologic and therapeutic parameters in a series of glioblastomas to identify prognostic factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated 50 cases who were operated on for intracranial glioblastoma between January 1998-March 2004 retrospectively. All clinical records, radiological records and management modalities were evaluated as prognostic value.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean survival time was 7.5 months (range, 1-18 months). We confirmed the patients' age, gender, Karnofsky Performance Scale score at discharge, postoperative radiotherapy and reoperation as decisive prognostic factors after multivariate analyses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We could show that some clinical parameters and treatment modalities were associated with prognosis. Younger age, male gender, higher Karnofsky Performance Score at discharge, total surgical resection, radiotherapy and reoperation were predictor for better prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Bakirköy Research and Training Hospital for Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 2nd Neurosurgery Clinic, Istanbul, Turkey. bekirtugcu@superonline.com
authors.forename: Bekir
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tugcu
authors.forename: Lutfi Sinasi
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Postalci
authors.forename: Omur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gunaldi
authors.forename: Osman
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tanriverdi
authors.forename: Hidayet
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akdemir
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D002648:Child; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D017567:Karnofsky Performance Status; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000401:mortality* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012086:Reoperation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D016019:Survival Analysis; D055815:Young Adult