Correlation Between Tumor Location and Clinical Properties of Glioblastomas in Frontal and Temporal Lobes

Tumor location is a major prognostic factor in glioblastomas and may be associated with clinical properties. This study established and analyzed the correlation between tumor location and clinical properties of glioblastomas in frontal and temporal lobes.

This retrospective study determined the location of glioblastomas in the frontal lobe (FL) or temporal lobe (TL) based on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging. Clinical, radiologic, and molecular characteristics of FL and TL glioblastomas were compared to define their clinical properties, including sex, age, sides, relationship to ventricle, imaging subtypes, volume, isocitrate dehydrogenase mutation, promoter methylation of O⁶-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase, progression-free survival, and overall survival.

The study enrolled 406 patients (182 [44.83%] in FL group and 224 [55.17%] in TL group) with a mean age of 69.8 years. Compared with FL group, TL group had higher incidence of female patients (P = 0.024), tumor location distant to the ventricle (P = 0.006), isocitrate dehydrogenase mutations (P = 0.021), promoter methylation of O⁶-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (P = 0.012), and prolonged progression-free survival and overall survival (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed between groups with respect to age ≥60 years at study entry (P = 0.668), sides (P = 0.879), imaging subtypes (P = 0.362), or volume (P = 0.709).

This study demonstrated that different tumor locations are associated with diverse clinical properties of glioblastomas in FL and TL. This information will aid in increasing understanding of glioblastoma biology for application in baseline comparisons in future clinical trials.