Therapy and survival of adult patients with intracranial glioma in a defined population.

During the 3 years 1978-1980 146 adult patients with intracranial glioma were diagnosed in the Province of Uusimaa in southern Finland. The median survival of all patients was 15 months, of glioblastoma (n = 41) 5.1 months, of anaplastic astrocytoma (n = 29) 12.4 months, of benign grade I-II astrocytoma (n = 30) 93.5 months, of other glioma 82.9 months (n = 27), and of probable glioma 9.8 months (n = 19); 22 patients are still alive 8.9-11.9 years after diagnosis. The patients who were 15-44 years of age at the time of diagnosis survived 75.4 months in the median (n = 58), 45-64 years 10.5 months (n = 61) and 65 years or older 4.8 months (n = 27); 96 patients were operated, 89 received radiotherapy and 34 chemotherapy. According to the proportional hazards' model, follow-up time, age and histological type of tumor were statistically highly significant in explaining differences in survival.