Survival comparison between glioblastoma multiforme and other incurable cancers

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an incurable disease that has a reputation as having one of the worst prognoses of all cancers. Recent advances in treatment have led to significant improvements in both progression-free and overall survival. Despite this, the wider medical community continues to perceive GBM as having an incomparably poor prognosis. This perception may stem from a lack of awareness regarding the significant survival advantage through the addition of concurrent and post-radiotherapy temozolomide, as well as unfair comparisons to cancers with curable early stages. In this analysis, we compared the efficacy data reported in pivotal studies for the incurable stage of common cancers to modern efficacy data for GBM. In particular, we compared median overall survival, median progression-free survival and 12-month and 5-year survival rates. Our results demonstrate that with modern treatment, GBM survival is now comparable to, if not better than, many other incurable cancers. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.