Therapy and survival of adult patients with intracranial glioma in a defined population

Abstract

During the 3 years 1978–1980 146 adult patients with intracranial glioma were diagnosed in the Province of Uusimaa in southern Finland. The median survival of all patients was 15 months, of glioblastoma (n = 41) 5.1 months, of anaplastic astrocytoma (n = 29) 12.4 months, of benign grade I–II astrocytoma (n = 30) 93.5 months, of other glioma 82.9 months (n = 27), and of probable glioma 9.8 months (n = 19); 22 patients are still alive 8.9–11.9 years after diagnosis. The patients who were 15–44 years of age at the time of diagnosis survived 75.4 months in the median (n = 58), 45–64 years 10.5 months (n = 61) and 65 years or older 4.8 months (n = 27); 96 patients were operated, 89 received radiotherapy and 34 chemotherapy. According to the proportional hazards’model, follow‐up time, age and histological type of tumor were statistically highly significant in explaining differences in survival.