Prognosis and management of gliosarcoma patients: A review of literature

•In gliosarcomas, adjuvant radiotherapy significantly improves overall survival.•Bevacizumab showed positive results. However, conclusions can’t be driven yet.•The benefit of chemotherapeutic agents such as TMZ remains unclear.•An optimal treatment for gliosarcoma is still unclear. Gliosarcoma (GSM)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical neurology and neurosurgery 2019-07, Vol.182, p.98-103
Main Authors: Saadeh, Fadi, El Iskandarani, Sarah, Najjar, Marwan, Assi, Hazem I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain cancer
Brain tumors
Chemotherapy
Genetic alterations
Glioblastoma
Glioma
Gliosarcoma
Medical prognosis
Metastasis
Mutation
Neurology
Parenchyma
Prognosis
Radiation therapy
Review
Studies
Survival
Therapy
Tumors
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Summary:•In gliosarcomas, adjuvant radiotherapy significantly improves overall survival.•Bevacizumab showed positive results. However, conclusions can’t be driven yet.•The benefit of chemotherapeutic agents such as TMZ remains unclear.•An optimal treatment for gliosarcoma is still unclear. Gliosarcoma (GSM) is a variant of glioblastoma (GBM), the most common primary malignant brain tumor that occurs in adults. GSM is characterized by its biphasic components: the gliomatous and sarcomatous components and categorized into primary and secondary GSM. Intrinsic to the brain parenchyma, GSM is usually managed by gross total resection, and radiotherapy with/without chemotherapy. While the benefits of treatment remain unclear, cases have always been managed similar to GBM cases yielding different treatment outcomes between the two groups. The scarcity of research done on GSM suggests that further investigation is needed. Genetic studies on tumor samples and an in-depth examination of tumor subtypes and categories could result in identification of certain targetable alterations. The objective of this review is to summarize the available findings on characteristics, prognosis and management of GSM patients.
ISSN:0303-8467
1872-6968
DOI:10.1016/j.clineuro.2019.05.008