Long-term survival of glioblastoma: A systematic analysis of literature about a case

Abstract

Introduction: In spite of the changes for the treatment of glioblastoma since 2005, we have not seen differences between long-survival patients of more than 10 years showing a value minor than 1%.

Material and method: We realize a systematic analysis and identify important factors for long survivor patients. We also show an own case with more of 20 years of survival. We make a new pathological study of the old paraffin block of this patient.

Results: The most important variable associated with long-survival between all multivariant studies is the age. When we try to find genetic and molecular alterations in glioblastoma associated with prolongated survival, the MGMT promoter methylation play the most important role. We find a correct diagnosis in the current analysis of our patient's sample with very long survival.

Conclusions: Multiple variables are found that affect long survival of glioblastoma series but analyzed studies are very heterogeneous and it is very difficult comparation between them. Most articles we review are obtained from databases of different countries with hundreds of patients. It would be very interesting to promote the use of a single database in Spain that allows us to study these long-term glioblastoma survivors.

Keywords: Curación; Cure; Glioblastoma; Larga supervivencia; Long-term survival; Molecular profile; Muy larga supervivencia; Perfil molecular; Very long-term survival.