Factors affecting progression-free survival of patients with cerebral hemisphere high-grade glioma after total resection / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

Objective The purpose of this study was to assess the imaging features of newly diagnosed high-grade glioma and the effect of relevant factors such as postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy on progression-free sur-vival (PFS) time. Methods A total of 54 patients with recurrent high-grade glioma confirmed by pathology or progressive malignant glioma proved by clinical follow-up were included in this retrospective study from 4 clinical centers. The prog-nostic factors selected included MR image features at initial diagnosis (including the maximum diameter of tumor, peritu-moral edema, degree of enhancement, degree of necrosis and presence of cystic or satellite), postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox’s proportion-hazards model were used to analyse the factors influenc-ing the progression free survival (PFS) time. Results The univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the degree of peritumoral edema (PTE, P=0.001), degree of necrosis (P<0.001) , degree of enhancement (P<0.001), postoperative radio-therapy (P=0.008) and chemotherapy(P=0.035) were significant factors for PFS. Cox multivariate analysis also showed that the degree of PTE(P=0.019),degree of necrosis (P<0.001) were all significantly correlated with PFS. The less edema or necrosis was associated with the longer PFS. In addition, postoperative radiotherapy (P=0.035) and chemotherapy (P=0.049) were also significantly correlated with PFS. The normative chemotherapy and radiotherapy were associated with longer PFS. Conclusions The PTE and necrosis on preoperative MR images can be used to predict the PFS of glioma af-ter total resection. Adjuvant normative chemotherapy and radiotherapy should be recommend for supratentorial high-grade glioma including those even with MRI confirmed total resection.

Notch signaling pathway and glioma stem cell niche / 国际肿瘤学杂志

A small fraction of tumor stem cells exist in glioma and play a key role in the tumorigenesis and propagation of glioma.They have a close relationship with their niche that offers structural and functional support.In glioma niche,vascular endothelial cells can provide Notch ligands for cancer stem cells to activate Notch signaling pathway and contact with other signaling pathways,maintaining the tumor stem cell self-renewal and increasing resistance of brain tumor stem cells to radiotherapy.Therefore,Notch signaling pathway is considered to be a new therapeutic target of glioma.