Malignant glioma: who benefits from adjuvant chemotherapy?

We combined two randomized prospective Brain Tumor Study Group data sets to analyze the effects of prognostic factors on survival by treatment group. Adjuvant chemotherapy increased long-term survival regardless of prognostic factors. Pathological review revealed that oligo dendrogliomas were overrepresented among long-term survivors independent of therapy. Prognostic factors do not predict benefit from adjuvant nitrosourea in malignant gliomas, and long-term survival with chemotherapy is not explained by oligodendroglial tumors.