An individual patient data meta-analysis on characteristics, treatments and outcomes of the glioblastoma/gliosarcoma patients with central nervous system metastases reported in literature until 2013

Dissemination of high-grade gliomas (WHO IV) has been investigated poorly so far. We conducted an extensive analysis of the characteristics, treatments and outcomes of the glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)/gliosarcoma (GS) patients with central nervous system (CNS) metastases reported in literature until April 2013. PubMed and Web of Science searches for peer-reviewed articles pertaining to GBM/GS patients with metastatic disease were conducted using predefined keywords. Additionally, we performed hand search following the references from the selected papers. Cases in which the metastases exclusively occurred outside the CNS were excluded. 110 publications reporting on 189 patients were eligible. There was a significant increase in the number of reported cases over the last decades. We calculated a median overall survival from diagnosis of metastasis (from initial diagnosis of GBM/GS) of 3.0 ± 0.3 (11 ± 0.7) months. On univariate analyses, gender, age, the histological subtype, the time interval between initial diagnosis and the occurrence of metastases and the location of CNS metastasis (intracranial versus spinal and parenchymal versus leptomeningeal, respectively) did not influence survival after diagnosis of metastasis. There was no substantial treatment progress over the recent decades. GBM/GS with CNS metastasis are associated with a dismal prognosis. Crucial treatment progress is not evident. A central registry should be considered to consecutively gain more information about the ideal therapeutic approach.