Impact of morphology and biology on the prognosis of patients with gliomas

Abstract

Gliomas are the most common type of primary intracerebral neoplasm. They carry a dismal prognosis. The main prognostic factors are patient age, performance status and malignancy grade. Because patients with the same histologic diagnosis have variable outcomes, there is a need to develop better prognostic markers with the aim of predicting tumor behaviour and response to therapies. This paper reviews different morphological, genetic, molecular factors and their association with survival. Tumor associated morphological features such as predominant cell type, cellularity, cytological atypia, proliferation activity, microvascular proliferation, necrosis and apoptosis are discussed in some detail.