Cerebellar glioblastoma in adults: a comparative single-center matched pair analysis and systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Purpose The rarity of cerebellar glioblastoma presents a significant challenge in clinical practice due to the lack of extensive prognostic data on long-term survival rates, rendering it an underrepresented entity compared to its supratentorial counterpart. This study aims to analyze potential differences in survival outcome between patients with cerebellar and supratentorial glioblastomas. Methods From 2009 to 2020, 8 patients underwent surgical treatment for cerebellar glioblastoma at the authors’ institution. These patients were individually matched with a cohort of 205 consecutive patients from our institutional database with supratentorial glioblastoma, taking into account key prognostic parameters. We compared progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates and performed a systematic literature review to compile additional survival data on cerebellar glioblastoma. Results The median OS for cerebellar glioblastoma patients was 18 months (95% CI 11–25). The balanced matched-pair analysis showed no significant difference in survival when compared to patients with supratentorial glioblastoma, exhibiting a median OS of 23 months (95% CI 0–62) (p = 0.63). Respective values for PFS were 8 months (95% CI 4–12) for cerebellar and 7 months (95% CI 0–16) for supratentorial glioblastoma (p = 0.2). The systematic review revealed that median OS for cerebellar glioblastoma in current literature ranges from 7 to 21 months. Conclusions The present findings indicate that patients with supra- and infratentorial glioblastoma do not significantly differ in regard to survival outcome parameters. This similarity in prognosis might encourage clinicians to consider surgical interventions for both supra- and infratentorial BMs in a similar manner.