Project 1:
San Francisco Bay Area Adult Glioma Survival Study

Principal Investigator - Margaret R. Wrensch, PhD
Clinical Co-Principal Investigator - Michael D. Prados, MD

Three important goals of clinical research pertinent to glioma are to choose the best treatment available for each glioma patient, to enhance patient stratification so that new treatments can be more quickly and accurately evaluated, and to provide better information to patients and their families on what they can expect as a result of their disease.

Unambiguous diagnosis is a cornerstone for each of these goals. Currently, however, glioma diagnosis is primarily based on assessments of tumor morphology, which are inherently subjective. There is an urgent need to identify tumor and patient characteristics that better define glioma subtype and patient prognosis. This project is addressing this need by examining survival in relationship to several tumor markers which define genetic subtypes of gliomas, and which are thought to be potentially important in prognosis. In addition to consideration of known prognostic indicators such as age, the study also is considering survival as a function of patient characteristics, including a variety of polymorphisms in DNA repair and carcinogen metabolizing genes, personal and family medical histories, diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption prior to diagnosis, as well as other demographic factors such as education.

The survival information derived from this study is expected to be useful to clinicians in planning and refining treatments while information from other factors will be useful in providing patients with a clearer picture of their probable outcomes based on individual characteristics.