Fluorescence-Guided versus Conventional Surgical Resection of High Grade Glioma: A Single-Centre, 7-Year, Comparative Effectiveness Study

ABSTRACT

Background: High grade gliomas (HGGs) are locally invasive brain tumours that carry a dismal prognosis. Although complete resection increases median survival, the difficulty in reliably demonstrating the tumour border intraoperatively is a norm. The Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital Sungai Buloh is the first public hospital in Malaysia to overcome this problem by adopting fluorescence-guided (FG) surgery using 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA). Methods: A total of 74 patients with histologically proven HGGs treated between January 2008 and December 2014, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, were enrolled. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates and Cox proportional hazard regression were used. Results: Significant longer survival time (months) was observed in the FG group compared with the conventional group (12 months versus 8 months, P 80 (P = 0.010), histology (P < 0.001), surgical method (P < 0.001) and adjuvant therapy (P < 0.001). Conclusion: This study showed a significant clinical benefit for HGG patients in terms of overall survival using FG surgery as it did not result in worsening of post-operative function outcome when compared with the conventional surgical method. We advocate a further multicentered, randomised controlled trial to support these findings before FG surgery can be implemented as a standard surgical adjunct in local practice for the benefit of HGG patients.