Although gangliogliomas are often associated with long survival, efforts to
identify specific prognostic factors in these tumors have been largely uns
uccessful. To identify factors associated with long survival, we retrospect
ively reviewed 42 cases of supratentorial ganglioglioma surgically treated
at our institution since 1985. Data analysis included Kaplan-Meier survival
curves and log-rank tests of the effects of individual variables. The Cox
proportional hazards method was used to fit a model incorporating several v
ariables simultaneously.
The 42 cases included 21 male and 21 female patients with an average age at
surgery of 31 years. Length of follow-up averaged 48 months. Ten patients
died an average of 38 months after surgery. Factors found to have a signifi
cant correlation with mortality were older age at diagnosis (P = 0.012), ma
le gender (P = 0.034), and malignant glial features (P = 0.020). Presenting
symptoms, location of tumor, adjuvant radiation therapy, and extent of sur
gical resection were not significantly related to survival.
These results are the first to demonstrate an association between prognosti
c factors and outcome in patients with supratentorial ganglioglioma.