Literature Review of Spinal Cord Glioblastoma

This systematic review aims to investigate spinal cord glioblastoma (scGBM) and correlations between patient traits and survival outcome, as well as differences in cohorts administered temozolomide or total resections, through an analysis of published cases reported up to October 2016.

We obtained patient data by querying PubMed and Google Scholar with predetermined search terms and inclusion criteria that enabled the identification of relevant case reports. Survival was compared using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank analyses.

Of 153 patients with scGBM identified through a literature search, 135 met the predetermined search and inclusion criteria. Median overall survival (OS) for the resulting cohort was 12 (95% CI, 10-14) months. The female sex was found to significantly predict worse outcomes, and a sizable number of patients with long-term disease were found to have afflictions of the thoracic spinal cord. Neither the pediatric, temozolomide nor total resection subgroups had significantly improved survival characteristics, by log-rank analysis, relative to counterparts.

These data elucidate the characteristics of patients with scGBM. For more sophisticated and in-depth analyses in the future, it is imperative that time-of-treatment information is recorded in future case reports. In addition, all case reports should be made available to prevent publication bias.