Tumour-associated epilepsy: clinical impact and the role of referring centres in a cohort of glioblastoma patients. A multicentre study from the Lombardia Neurooncology Group

Epilepsy in high-grade glioma patients is a major concern, mainly as regards indications to treatment and best choice; toxicities, and pharmocokinetic and pharmacodynarrtic interactions of drugs. All these generally unsolved problems complicate patients' quality of life and interfere with the evaluation of response criteria in clinical trials. A prospective, multicentre data collection on 132 adult newly diagnosed, histologically proven glioblastomas from 9 Lombardy hospitals collected in the same database during a one-year period was recently published. From this database we report epidemiological and clinical characteristics in epilepsy-symptomatic (31%) glioblastoma patients vs. the group with other presenting symptoms (69%). We analyse demographic and clinico-radiological features, timing of onset and the course of seizures, and modalities of treatment in the two groups of patients. No statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups as regards age, site of lesion(s), extent of surgery and survival in relation to anticonvulsant treatment status or pharmacokinetic properties of drugs.