Does Surveillance-Detected Disease Progression Yield Superior Patient Outcomes in High-Grade Glioma?

BACKGROUND: Standard follow-up care for patients with high-grade glioma (HGG) involves routine surveillance imaging to detect disease progression, assess treatment response, and monitor clinical symptoms. Although logical in nature, evidence supporting this practice is limited. We hypothesize patients with tumor recurrence detected on routine surveillance imaging will experience superior outcomes relative to symptomatic detection, using measures of survival and postrecurrence neurologic function. METHODS: Adult patients receiving treatment for HGG at our institution from 2004 to 2018 were identified, and data including tumor characteristics, imaging results, neurologic status, and survival were extracted from the medical records of patients meeting inclusion criteria. All participants were followed for a minimum of 12 months, or for survival duration. Survival and neurologic function differences were assessed using log rank and 2-sample t tests with 2-sided 0.05 alpha level of significance. RESULTS: Of the 74 patients meeting inclusion criteria, 47 (63.5%) had recurrence detected via routine surveillance imaging, and 27 (36.5%) had symptomatic detection outside of the surveillance schedule. Neither median overall survival (14.8 months for surveillance and 15.7 months for symptomatic; P = 0.600) nor postrecurrence neurologic function (assessed by Karnofsky Performance Scale Index and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) differed between the surveillance and symptomatic detection groups (P = 0.699 and P = 0.908, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Recurrence detection occurring via routine surveillance imaging did not yield superior patient outcomes relative to symptomatic detection occurring outside of the standard surveillance schedule in patients with HGG. Further evaluation of surveillance imaging and alternative follow-up methods for this patient population may be warranted.