Introduction: Primary brainstem glioma is a rare tumor with a dismal prognosis that poses significant treatment challenges. The purpose of the current study is to identify and determine prognostic factors associated with survival in high-grade brainstem glioma patients. Methods: We gathered the data from the SEER database for the duration of years from 1973 to 2016 to examine the survival of patients particularly reported with the high-grade brainstem glioma and subsequently ascertained the potential impact of demographic features, tumor, and clinical characteristics on the overall survival of these patients. The survival patterns were assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was performed between patients with or without radiation therapy based on age and surgical resection to investigate the effect of radiotherapy on overall survival (OS). Results: A total 232 patient's data were obtained from the SEER database and included in this study. The median overall survival was 8 months. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis delineated that the patients who were in younger age (P = .001) and underwent surgery (P = .001) exhibited typically a better prognosis. Among 232 patients, a total of 204 patients were categorized as radiotherapy group (RG) received radiation therapy whereas 28 patients were considered as nonradiotherapy group (NRG), who were not receiving radiotherapy. Radiotherapy was associated with an improvement in the overall survival without statistical significance (P = .104). PSM was performed between RG and NRG based on age and surgical resection. After the PSM, 56 patients were included. Overall Survival was significantly different between both groups (P = .038). Conclusion: Furthermore, the patients with high-grade brain glioma who received "both radiotherapy and chemotherapy" exhibited significantly longer survival compared to the patients who received chemotherapy alone. Multivariate analysis showed that treatment with surgery and radiotherapy were considered as the independent prognostic factors (P < .05).
Keywords: SEER program; age; brainstem neoplasms; chemotherapy; high-grade brainstem glioma; prognosis; radiotherapy; surgery.