Prognostic significance of seizure in patients with glioblastoma multiforme

Several prognostic factors have been described but there are few studies evaluating the prognostic importance of seizure in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

To evaluate the prognostic importance of seizure at the time of the diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and compare it with other known prognostic factors.

Between January 1994 and December 2000, 81 patients underwent irradiation for intracranial GBM at our institution. The criteria for inclusion in this study were biopsy-proven GBM, being treated for primary disease. Seventy-six patients were retrospectively evaluated and the remaining five patients could not be enrolled due to lack of details.

The prognostic importance of age, sex, performance status, a history of seizure at diagnosis, extent of surgery, radiotherapy field and dose were studied.

The Kaplan-Meier method, the Log rank test, the Cox proportional hazard model and the Mann-Whitney U test were used for statistical analysis.

Survival at first and second years was 19.74% and 4.81%, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed age, performance status, history of seizure, and radiotherapy dose as significant prognostic factors and with multivariate analysis age, history of seizure and radiotherapy dose were positive prognostic factors.

This study concluded that in GBM, history of seizure prior to diagnosis of GBM was a positive prognostic factor.