Correlation between glioma location and preoperative seizures: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Epilepsy is a common manifestation of glioma patients and negatively impacts on quality of life and neurocognitive function. The risk of preoperative seizures in patients with glioma is currently under discussion.

We aimed to evaluate the relationship between tumor locations in the cerebrum and preoperative seizures in patients with glioma. PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, China Biology Medicine, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched from inception to July 15, 2017, for original studies including reports of preoperative seizures in patients with gliomas in different brain regions. The pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of the meta-analysis for preoperative seizure risk stratified by cerebrum regions were calculated. The quality of evidence was assessed per outcome, using the approach of the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation.

Overall, 4323 participants in 16 population-based studies were included in this meta-analysis. The meta-analysis indicated that gliomas in the frontal lobe (OR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.09–2.09, P = 0.013) were associated with a higher risk for preoperative seizure compared to occipital lobe involved (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.32–0.88, P = 0.014). Regarding the other three lobe involved gliomas, no difference was found between the incidence of preoperative seizures and tumor location.

Current limited data suggest that frontal gliomas were associated with a higher risk of preoperative seizures, while gliomas in the occipital lobe were associated with a lower seizure risk. Further RCT studies recruiting larger sample sizes are required to validate these results and guide clinical practice.

Prognostic Importance of Age, Tumor Location, and Tumor Grade in Grade II Astrocytomas

World Neurosurg. (2019) 121:e411-e418

Previous work in anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) demonstrated that the survival benefit from gross total resection (GTR) is modified by age and tumor location. Here, we determined the influence of age and tumor location on survival benefit from GTR in diffuse astrocytoma (DA).

METHODS: We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (1999-2010). We used Kaplan- Meier curves and Cox survival models to determine the survival benefit from GTR in populations stratified by age and tumor location. We determined the prevalence of the mutated isocitrate dehydrogenase (mIDH) using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

RESULTS: We identified 1980 patients with DA. For frontal DAs, GTR resulted in improved survival relative to subtotal resection in all ages (age ≤50 years hazard ratio [HR], 0.56; P [ 0.002; age >50 years HR, 0.41; P < 0.001). For nonfrontal DAs, only patients ≤50 years experienced improved survival with GTR (age ≤50 years HR, 0.55; P [ 0.002; age >50 years HR, 0.78; P [ 0.114). For patients ≤50 years with frontal tumors, survival was comparable between DA and AA after GTR (75% survival DA: 80 months, AA: 89 months, P [ 0.973). In TCGA, these tumors were nearly uniformly mIDH (DA: 98%; AA: 90%, P [ 0.11). However, for patients ≤50 years with nonfrontal tumors, there was a survival difference after GTR (75% survival DA: 80 months, AA: 30 months, P [ 0.001) despite comparable mIDH prevalence (DA: 82%, AA: 75%, P [ 0.49).

CONCLUSIONS: Age and tumor location modify the survival benefit derived from GTR in DA. Survival patterns in SEER imperfectly correlated with mIDH prevalence in TCGA, suggesting that tumor grade and mIDH status convey nonredundant prognostic information in select clinical contexts