National survey of patterns of care for brain-tumor patients

Abstract

An excellent response by participating institutions was realized in this survey of patterns of care for patients with primary brain tumors. Since the histopathology of the tumor is such a strong predictor of outcome and influences care so greatly, most analyses were performed not only on the overall series of patients but also by World Health Organization histological classification. Several factors that influence outcome were identified: tumor type, patient age, patient Karnofsky rating, tumor location, and therapy. Very few cases were coded as regards the American Joint Committee on Cancer clinical stage, and few potentially eligible cases were placed in investigative protocols. It behooves those centers providing investigative protocol opportunities to develop liaisons with practicing physicians nearby as well as at some distance and to provide an organizational framework that will make participation in these protocols practical for a larger segment of our brain-tumor patient population. Between 1980 and 1985, the increased use of magnetic resonance imaging in neuroradiology is apparent as well as the increased use of stereotactic biopsy and interstitial radiotherapy. Complications of therapy seem acceptably low. Five-year survival for benign brain tumor is high, while that for the most common primary tumor, glioblastoma multiforme, is only 5.5%. Some of the findings in this survey confirm those from the literature while others, particularly the pattern of care, represent new data.