Abstract
INTRODUCTION: High-grade gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors in adults, and they usually have a quick fatal course. Average survival is 18 months, mainly, because of tumor resistance to Stupp protocol. OBJECTIVE: To determine high-grade glioma patient survival and the effect of persuasion variables on survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal descriptive study in which 80 untreated recently diagnosed high-grade glioma patients participated. A survey was conducted regarding their exposure to some risk factors, degree of genetic instability in peripheral blood using micronucleus quantification on binuclear lymphocytes, micronuclei in reticulocytes and sister-chromatid exchanges in lymphocytes. In the statistical analysis, this study constructed life tables, used the Kaplan-Meier, and the log-rank test, and in the multivariate analysis, a Cox proportional hazards model was constructed. RESULTS: Eighty patients' clinical, demographic and lifestyle characteristics were analyzed, as well as their survival rates and the average survival time is 784 days (interquartile range: 928). Factors like age, exposure at work to polycyclic hydrocarbons and the number of sister-chromatid exchanges in lymphocytes in the first sampling was significantly survivalrelated in the multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: We determined that only three of the analyzed variables have an important effect on survival time when it comes to high-grade glioma patients.