Outcomes in Glioblastoma Patients: From Diagnosis to Palliation

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Causes, Screening and Diagnosis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2024 | Viewed by 657

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Translational Medicine, University of Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
Interests: functional neurosurgery; cerebrovascular disease; neuro-oncology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Neurosurgery Unit, Department of Translational Medicine and for Romagna, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
Interests: neuro-oncology; pain treatment; functional neurosurgery; CSF physiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the most challenging aspects in the treatment of high grade glioma (HGG) is the outcome assessment and the subsequent prognostic prevision. With the advancement of technical possibilities, it becomes fundamental to pursue a patient-tailored approach that takes into account a multitude of variables, including clinical, radiological, biomolecular and personal factors. This is particularly true for HGG patients that face the tremendous impact of such an aggressive tumor, as at each step of cure, a fundamental decision has to be made where every element is crucial. The most known example of a prognostic factor in HGG is the MGMT promoter methylation status and the response to alkylating agent chemotherapy, but many others are now under consideration in laboratory and clinical practice. From the first radiological evaluation to supportive end-of-life care, outcome assessment and prevision are of the utmost importance in HGG patient’s management to avoid both under or over treatments. This Special Issue will focus on the recent evidence on HGG’s Quoad vitam prognosis (prognostic radiological, clinical, biological, and genetical markers) and Quoad valetudinem prognosis (neurological and functional assessment of HGG patients, before and after therapy, including the psycho-social well-being of patients and caregivers).

Dr. Alba Scerrati
Dr. Giorgio Mantovani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • high-grade glioma
  • outcome assessment
  • prognostic factors
  • neuro-oncology
  • glioblastoma

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

11 pages, 1073 KiB  
Article
High-Grade Glioma Recurrence Is Delayed in Hispanic Patients despite Severe Social Vulnerability: A Retrospective Cohort Study
by Joshua A. Reynolds, Isabella L. Pecorari, Alexander Ledet and Vijay Agarwal
Cancers 2024, 16(8), 1579; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cancers16081579 - 20 Apr 2024
Viewed by 275
Abstract
High-grade gliomas (HGGs; WHO grade III or IV) are the most common and lethal brain malignancy. Patients of Hispanic ethnicity are diagnosed with HGGs earlier than non-Hispanic patients, but they exhibit improved HGG survival following diagnosis. Either environmental or biological factors could explain [...] Read more.
High-grade gliomas (HGGs; WHO grade III or IV) are the most common and lethal brain malignancy. Patients of Hispanic ethnicity are diagnosed with HGGs earlier than non-Hispanic patients, but they exhibit improved HGG survival following diagnosis. Either environmental or biological factors could explain this survival benefit. We aimed to determine if post-diagnosis advantages would still be present in Hispanic patients with high social vulnerability, an environmental condition predisposing patients to poor oncologic outcomes. HGG outcomes were retrospectively assessed in a cohort of 22 Hispanic patients and 33 non-Hispanic patients treated for HGGs from 2015 to 2020 at a single institution that serves a highly vulnerable region. Compared to non-Hispanic patients, Hispanic patients demonstrated higher social vulnerability index scores (96.8 + 0.7 vs. 76.3 + 4.6; *** p = 0.0002) and a 14-month longer interval between diagnosis and recurrence (19.7 + 5.9 (n = 13) vs. 5.5 + 0.6 months (n = 19); ** p = 0.001). In only those patients with more aggressive IDH-1 wildtype tumors (glioblastoma), Hispanic ethnicity still related to a longer time before recurrence (15.8 + 5.9 months (n = 9); 5.5 + 0.6 months (n = 18); * p = 0.034), and in a multivariate analysis, Hispanic ethnicity predicted time-to-recurrence (* p = 0.027) independent of patient age, functional status, MGMT gene methylation, or treatments received. Therefore, environmental factors, specifically social vulnerability, did not obscure the post-diagnosis benefits associated with Hispanic ethnicity. In future experiments, basic studies should be prioritized which investigate the cellular or genetic mechanisms underlying this ethnicity effect on HGG progression in the hopes of improving care for these devastating malignancies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Outcomes in Glioblastoma Patients: From Diagnosis to Palliation)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop