The benefit of early surgery on overall survival in incidental low-grade glioma patients: A multicenter study

Abstract

Background: The role of surgery for incidentally discovered diffuse incidental low-grade gliomas (iLGGs) is debatable and poorly documented in current literature. Objective: The aim was to identify factors that influence survival for patients that underwent surgical resection of iLGGs in a large multicenter population. Methods: Clinical, radiological, and surgical data were retrospectively analyzed in 267 patients operated for iLGG from 4 neurosurgical Centers. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify predictors of overall survival (OS) and tumor recurrence (TR). Results: The OS rate was 92.41%. The 5-and 10-year estimated OS rates were 98.09% and 93.2%, respectively. OS was significantly longer for patients with a lower preoperative tumor volume (P =. 001) and higher extent of resection (EOR) (P =. 037), regardless the WHO-defined molecular class (P =. 2). In the final model, OS was influenced only by the preoperative tumor volume (P =. 006), while TR by early surgery (P =. 028). A negative association was found between preoperative tumor volumes and EOR (rs =-0.44, P