Factors influencing prognosis of patients with CNS supratentorial astroglial tumors who underwent postoperative radiotherapy.
To find the association between survival and various prognostic factors such as age, extent of surgical intervention, duration of complaints, site of tumour, histologic grade of the tumours and the Karnofsky performance status, we studied retrospectively 179 patients with histologically proven cerebral gliomas treated postoperatively in the Radioisotopic Center from 1976 to 1989. The patient's histologic tumour grade, the Karnofsky performance status and age proved to be particularly very indicative for longer survival time. The obligatory treatment with postoperative radiation therapy has been discussed in our previous works in connection with irradiated volume and a total radiation tumor dose. The state of the patients prior to postoperative telegamma therapy (Karnofsky Performance Status) is of major importance both for the therapeutic effect of irradiation and for the quality and duration of patient's further life. Patients with low-grade tumours (I and II), the Karnofsky performance status of 70% to 90% and age under 40 years live longer.