In this clinical and histopathological study, the frequency of long-term glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) survivors (LTGBMSs) was determined in a population-based study. The Alberta Cancer Registry was used to identify all patients diagnosed with GBM in Alberta between January 1, 1975, and December 31, 1991. Patient charts were reviewed and histology reexamined. LTGBMSs were defined as GBM patients surviving 3 years after diagnosis. Each LTGBMS was compared with 3 age-, sex-, and year of diagnosis-matched controls, and patient/treatment or tumor characteristics that predicted long-term survival were determined. There were 689 GBMs diagnosed in the study period; 15 (2.2%) of these patients survived 3 years. LTGBMSs (average age, 43.5 +/- 3.3 years) were significantly younger when compared with all GBM patients (average age, 53.0 +/- 0.56 years). LTGBMSs had a higher Karnofsky Performance Status score at diagnosis compared with controls. LTGBMSs were much more likely to have had a gross total resection and adjuvant chemotherapy than control GBM patients. Tumors from LTGBMSs tended to have fewer mitoses and a significantly lower Ki-67 cellular proliferation index compared with controls. Radiation-induced dementia was common and disabling in LTG-BMSs. In conclusion, conventionally treated GBM patients in an unselected population have a very small chance of long-term survival. The use of aggressive surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy may make long-term survival more likely in GBM patients if their performance status is high at diagnosis.

When geometric quantization is applied to a manifold using a real polarization which is "nice enough", a result ofŚniatycki says that the quantization can be found by counting certain objects, called Bohr-Sommerfeld leaves. Subsequently, several authors have taken this as motivation for counting Bohr-Sommerfeld leaves when studying the quantization of manifolds which are less "nice".In this paper, we examine the quantization of compact symplectic manifolds that can locally be modelled by a toric manifold, using a real polarization modelled on fibres of the moment map. We compute the results directly, and obtain a theorem similar toŚniatycki's, which gives the quantization in terms of counting Bohr-Sommerfeld leaves. However, the count does not include the Bohr-Sommerfeld leaves which are singular. Thus the quantization obtained is different from the quantization obtained using a Kähler polarization. * Supported by a PIMS Postdoctoral Fellowship Let V be a vector bundle over a manifold M , Γ(V ) be the space of smooth 1 sections of V , and Ω k (M ) the space of (smooth) differential k-forms on M .Definition. Formally, a connection on a vector bundle V is a map ∇ : Γ(V ) → Ω 1 (M ) ⊗ Γ(V ) which satisfies the following properties:1. ∇(σ 1 + σ 2 ) = ∇σ 1 + ∇σ 2

In this paper we construct a family of complex structures on a complex flag manifold that converge to the real polarization coming from the Gelfand-Cetlin integrable system, in the sense that holomorphic sections of a prequantum line bundle converge to deltafunction sections supported on the Bohr-Sommerfeld fibers. Our construction is based on a toric degeneration of flag varieties and a deformation of Kähler structure on toric varieties by symplectic potentials.

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