Persistent Disparities in Survival for Patients with Glioblastoma

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain cancer in adults. Recent efforts have elucidated genetic features of tumor cells and thus enhanced our knowledge of GBM pathophysiology. The most recent clinical trials report median overall survival between 14 and 20 months. However, population level outcomes are quite variable and there is a paucity of such data within the literature.

Methods: Three hundred seventy-two patients with GBM were diagnosed in the Canadian province of British Columbia between January 2013 and January 2015 and 278 patients had surgery. Of these, 268 had surgery in British Columbia and we have performed a retrospective review of their survival outcomes.

Results: Our results indicate a median age of 61.8 years at time of diagnosis, with a slight preponderance of male patients. The median overall survival was 10 months for patients in our cohort. As expected, patients older than the age of 65 and those with worse initial Karnofsky Performance Status scores had a poorer prognosis. Moreover, we have found extent of resection, treatment strategies, and treatment location affect overall survival.

Conclusions: The present study highlights factors that affect patient survival after surgery in British Columbia. Our data are gathered within a single-payer, high-resource setting which removes possible confounders in outcome analysis. We find persistent differences in overall survival when compared with clinical trials and the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Further efforts should ensure access to the gold standard of care. All neuro-oncology centers should analyze the real-world outcomes of their local glioblastoma treatment strategies. Knowledge of the variance from expected and comparative results are fundamental for appropriate patient care.