Risk Factors Associated with Malignant Transformation of Astrocytoma: Competing Risk Regression Analysis

Malignant transformation (MT) of low-grade astrocytoma (LGA) triggers a poor prognosis in benign tumors. Currently, factors associated with MT of LGA have been inconclusive. The present study aims to explore the risk factors predicting LGA progressively differentiation to malignant astrocytoma.

The study design was a retrospective cohort study of medical record reviews of patients with LGA. Using the Fire and Grey method, the competing risk regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with MT, using both univariate and multivariable analyses. Hence, the survival curves of the cumulative incidence of MT of each covariate were constructed following the final model.

Ninety patients with LGA were included in the analysis, and MT was observed in 14.4% of cases in the present study. For MT, 53.8% of patients with MT transformed to glioblastoma, while 46.2% differentiated to anaplastic astrocytoma. Factors associated with MT included supratentorial tumor (subdistribution hazard ratio [SHR] 4.54, 95% CI 1.08-19.10), midline shift >1 cm (SHR 8.25, 95% CI 2.18-31.21), nontotal resection as follows: Subtotal resection (SHR 5.35, 95% CI 1.07-26.82), partial resection (SHR 10.90, 95% CI 3.13-37.90), and biopsy (SHR 11.10, 95% CI 2.88-42.52).

MT in patients with LGA significantly changed the natural history of the disease to an unfavorable prognosis. Analysis of patients' clinical characteristics from the present study identified supratentorial LGA, a midline shift more than 1 cm, and extent of resection as risk factors associated with MT. The more extent of resection would significantly help to decrease tumor burden and MT. In addition, future molecular research efforts are warranted to explain the pathogenesis of MT.