Very late relapses in glioblastoma long-term survivors

Long-term survival of patients with histologically confirmed glioblastoma is a rare event with figures in the range of 2-3% for 5-year survival (Scott et al. in Ann Neurol 46:183-188, 1999; McLendon and Halperin in Cancer 98:1745-1748, 2003; Krex et al. in Brain 130:2596-2606, 2007). Prognosis and further clinical course of these patients beyond 5 years after diagnosis are in essence unknown with only anecdotal reports of patients surviving for 10 years or more (Salvati et al. J Neurooncol 36:61-64, 1998). We here report on the extended follow-up (mean, 139.4 months) of a cohort of glioblastoma long-term survivors. Very late relapses occurred in many patients even after more than 10 years of progression-free survival.