Survival Trends in Elderly Patients with Glioblastoma in the United States: a Population-based Study

Concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide along with radiotherapy following surgery (the Stupp regimen) is the preferred therapy for young patients with glioblastoma as well as for elderly (>70 years) ones with favorable risk factors. This study investigated the survival trend since the introduction of the use of the Stupp regimen in elderly patients in a population-based setting.

Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 18 database was used to identify patients aged ≥70 years with glioblastoma as the first primary cancer diagnosed from 1999 to 2010. Chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier analysis with log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard method were used for analysis.

A total of 5,575 patients were included in the survival analysis. Survival in Stupp era (year of diagnosis ≥2005) was significantly better compared to the pre-Stupp era with p<0.001 by log-rank test, with 1-, 2- and 3-year overall survival of 18.8% vs. 12.9%, 6.5% vs. 2.1% and 3.1% vs. 0.9% respectively, and hazard ratio for death in 3 years in the Stupp era was 0.87 (95% confidence interval=0.82-0.92; p<0.001) when compared with the pre-Stupp era. Factors such as younger age (<85 years), female sex, married status, Caucasian race and total resection favored better survival compared to their counterparts.

This study shows that the survival of elderly patients with glioblastoma has improved since the introduction of the Stupp regimen. However, there are significant differences in survival rates among various cohorts.