Prognostic Factors for the Survival Outcome of Bilateral Thalamic Glioma: An Integrated Survival Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to perform an integrated survival analysis of patients with bilateral thalamic glioma and to assess the influence of various prognostic factors on overall survival.

METHODS: A literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar was performed for literature in English published from 1964 to May 2017. Detailed information including demographics, clinical characteristics, treatments, critical events, and time to events for survival analysis were extracted from the included articles. In addition, 2 cases diagnosed in our institution were included.

RESULTS: The study included 53 cases from 32 published articles and 2 cases from our institution that were selected for analysis. Univariate analysis showed the duration of symptoms (≥2 or <2 months), glioma type (astrocytoma or glioblastoma multiforme), and World Health Organization (WHO) grade (low or high) had a significant correlation with overall survival (log-rank P = 0.011, 0.001, and <0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that the duration of symptoms (hazard ratio [HR], 0.299; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.121-0.736; P = 0.009), and WHO grade (HR, 4.639; 95% CI, 1.891-11.382; P = 0.001) were independent prognostic factors for bilateral thalamic glioma (BTG) survival.

CONCLUSIONS: This comprehensive analysis of rare BTG patients revealed that a longer duration of symptoms (≥2 months) and low WHO grade were significantly associated with improved survival and were independent prognostic factors for overall survival.