Ten-year review of survival and management of malignant glioma in Hong Kong

Introduction: Surgical resection used to be the mainstay of treatment for glioma. In the last decade, however, opinion has changed about the goal of surgical resection in treating glioma. Ample evidence shows that maximum safe resection in glioblastoma improves survival. Neurosurgeons have therefore revised their objective of surgery from diagnostic biopsy or limited debulking to maximum safe resection. Given these changes in the management of glioma, we compared the survival of local Chinese patients with glioblastoma multiforme over a period of 10 years.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of the brain tumour registry of the CUHK Otto Wong Brain Tumour Centre in Hong Kong. Data of patients with glioblastoma multiforme were reviewed for two periods, during 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2005 and 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012. Overall survival during these two periods of time was assessed by Kaplan-Meier survival estimates. Risk factors including age, type and extent of resection, use of chemotherapy, and methylation status of O⁶-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase were also assessed.

Results: There were 26 patients with glioblastoma multiforme with a mean age of 52.2 years during 2003 to 2005, and 42 patients with a mean age of 55.1 years during 2010 to 2012. The mean overall survival during these two periods was 7.4 months and 12.7 months, respectively (P<0.001). The proportion of patients who underwent surgical resection was similar: 69.2% in 2003 to 2005 versus 78.6% in 2010 to 2012 (P=0.404). There was a higher proportion of patients in whom surgery achieved total removal in 2010 to 2012 than in 2003 to 2005 (35.7% and 7.7%, respectively; P=0.015). During 2010 to 2012, patients who were given concomitant chemoradiotherapy showed definitively longer survival than those who were not (17.9 months vs 4.5 months; P=0.001). The proportion of patients who survived 2 years after surgery increased from 11.5% in 2003 to 2005 to 21.4% in 2010 to 2012.

Conclusions: Hong Kong has made substantial improvements in the management of glioblastoma multiforme over the last decade with corresponding improved survival outcomes. The combination of an aggressive surgical strategy and concomitant chemoradiotherapy are probably the driving force for the improvement.