Analysis of influencing factors of the survival time of pediatric patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma

Objectives To analyze the influencing factors of the survival time of children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and to investigate the treatment strategy for DIPG under current conditions. Methods Clinical data of 134 DIPG patients under 14 years old who were admitted to Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University from January 2011 to December 2017 were analyzed retrospectively. The survival time of children undergoing clinical intervention (n=98) was compared with that of children without intervention (n=36). Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the difference in survival time between DIPG patients with and without invention. Univariate analysis and multivariate Cox regression model were used to analyze influencing factors of the survival time of DIPG patients. Results The median survival time of the patients with and without intervention was 9.3 months and 3.3 months, respectively (P<0.001). Univariate analysis showed that the factors influencing the survival time of children with DIPG included age of onset, course of disease, pathological grade, operation, radiotherapy and chemotherapy (all P<0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that the pathological grade(RR: 2.095, 95%CI: 1.410-3.113, P<0.001), operation(RR: 0.247, 95%CI: 0.085-0.722, P=0.011), radiotherapy and chemotherapy(RR: 0.429, 95%CI: 0.255-0.720, P=0.001) were influencing factors of the survival time of DIPG patients. Conclusions The survival time of children with DIPG seems to be related to multiple factors. Surgical resection combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy could prolong the survival time of the patients. Key words: Pontine glioma; Microsurgery; Chemoradiotherapy, adjuvant; Child; Survival time