GLIOMA-12 GLIOSARCOMA: A SERIES OF FOUR CASES TREATED

INTRODUCTION: Gliosarcoma is a rare central nervous system malignancy, characterized by classical biphasic histological pattern with both glial and sarcomatous component. It usually affects fifth and sixth decade of life with slight male preponderance. In this report, we reviewed the clinical and radiological presentation, pathologic diagnosis, and treatment outcomes for a series of 4 patients diagnosed with gliosarcoma. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We carried out a retrospective analysis of four patients with gliosarcoma diagnosed between March 2019 and March 2023. Demographic data, clinicopathological data, treatment strategies employed, details of recurrence, and survival patterns are reviewed. RESULTS: Four patients, males, respectively aged of 56, 39, 54 and 57 years, presented with signs and symptoms consistent with an expanding intracranial mass,including headache, seizure, hemiparesis. Median duration of presenting symptoms was 3.5 months. The tumor was located in temporo-parieto-occipital region, fronto-parietal region, fronto-temporal region, and temporal region. All patients underwent craniotomy with attempt to achieve gross total surgical resection. Unfortunately, total resection could be achieved in only two patients; remaining two patients underwent subtotal resection. Surgery was followed by adjuvant radiotherapy and temozolomide-based chemotherapy for three patients. All patients died at 1 week, 6 months, 7 months and 10 months. CONCLUSION: As gliosarcoma is considered as a variant of glioblastoma, it is treated similarly to glioblastoma but optimum treatment recommendations are yet to be defined. In this series, we have reported four cases of gliosarcoma who have been treated on the lines of glioblastoma. The prognosis is still poor despite aggressive surgical resection and adjuvant multi-modality therapy is given.