OBJECTIVE: Following resection of glioblastoma (GBM), microscopic remnants of the GBM tumor remaining in nearby tissue cause tumor recurrence more often than for other types of tumors, even after gross-total resection (GTR). Although surgical oncologists traditionally resect some of the surrounding normal tissue, whether further removal of nearby tissue may improve survival in GBM patients is unknown. In this single-center retrospective study, the authors assessed whether lobectomy confers a survival benefit over GTR without lobectomy when treating GBMs in the noneloquent area.METHODS: The authors selected 40 patients who had undergone GTR of a histopathologically diagnosed isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)–wild type GBM in the right frontal or temporal lobe and divided the patients into 2 groups according to whether GTR of the tumor involved lobectomy, defined as a supratotal resection (SupTR group, n = 20) or did not (GTR group, n = 20). Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scores were compared between groups (p ≤ 0.05 for statistically significant differences).RESULTS: The median postoperative PFS times for each group were as follows: GTR group, 11.5 months (95% CI 8.8–14.2) and SupTR group, 30.7 months (95% CI 4.3–57.1; p = 0.007). The median postoperative OS times for each group were as follows: GTR group, 18.7 months (95% CI 14.3–23.1) and SupTR group, 44.1 months (95% CI 25.1–63.1; p = 0.040). The mean postoperative KPS scores (GTR, 76.5; SupTR, 77.5; p = 0.904) were not significantly different. In multivariate analysis, survival for the SupTR group was significantly longer than that for the GTR group in terms of both PFS (HR 0.230; 95% CI 0.090–0.583; p = 0.002) and OS (HR 0.247; 95% CI 0.086–0.704; p = 0.009).CONCLUSIONS: In cases of completely resectable, noneloquent-area GBMs, SupTR provides superior PFS and OS without negatively impacting patient performance.
Object: The methylation status of the methylguanine methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter has been associated with treatment response in glioblastoma. The authors aimed to assess whether MGMT methylation status can be predicted by dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Methods: This retrospective study included 43 patients with pathologically diagnosed glioblastoma who had undergone preoperative DCE-MRI and DTI and whose MGMT methylation status was available. The imaging features were qualitatively assessed using conventional MR images. Regions of interest analyses for DCE-MRI permeability parameters (transfer constant [Ktrans], rate transfer coefficient [Kep], and volume fraction of extravascular extracellular space [Ve]) and DTI parameters (apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC] and fractional anisotropy [FA]) were performed on the enhancing solid portion of the glioblastoma. Chi-square or Mann-Whitney tests were used to evaluate relationships between MGMT methylation and imaging parameters. The authors performed receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to find the optimal cutoff value for the presence of MGMT methylation. Results: MGMT methylation was not significantly associated with any imaging features on conventional MR images. Ktrans values were significantly higher in the MGMT methylated group (median 0.091 vs 0.053 min−1, p = 0.018). However, Kep, Ve, ADC, and FA were not significantly different between the 2 groups. The optimal cutoff value for the presence of MGMT methylation was Ktrans > 0.086 min−1 with an area under the curve of 0.756, a sensitivity of 56.3%, and a specificity of 85.2%. Conclusions: Ktrans may serve as a potential imaging biomarker to predict MGMT methylation status preoperatively in glioblastoma; however, further investigation with a larger cohort is necessary.