Prognostic factors in gliomas. A multivariate analysis of clinical, pathologic, flow cytometric, cytogenetic, and molecular markers

Background. The ability to divide subsets of patients with glial neoplasms into prognostic groups currently is limited because only a few clinical and pathologic variables are available. The goal of this investigation was to identify biologic factors of potential prognostic value in patients with cerebral gliomas. Methods. This prospective investigation used clinical, pathologic, flow cytometric, cytogenetic, and molecular genetic variables as potential prognostic factors in 207 patients with newly diagnosed gliomas (153 astrocytic tumors of the fibrillary type, 31 oligodendrogliomas, and 23 pilocytic astrocytomas). Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was performed as part of the multivariate statistical analysis. Results. The age of the patient and the grade of the tumor were confirmed as strong prognostic factors. Cytogenetic or molecular genetic abnormalities of chromosomes 7 and 10 were associated with poor survival in univariate analysis (P < 0.0001). CART multivariate analysis identified several subsets of patients with different prognoses. In the subset of patients younger than 66.5 years with Grade 4 tumors, the survival time was longer for those with aneuploid tumors than for those with nonaneuploid tumors. In the subset of patients with Grades 1‐3 tumors, the survival time was longer for those whose tumors had a %G2M of less than 6.9 than for those whose tumors had a %G2M of 6.9 or greater. Conclusion. This investigation provides further evidence that flow cytometry, cytogenetic, and molecular genetic factors that may have prognostic value in patients with gliomas can be identified.