Overall survival duration of glioblastoma patients after resection: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive brain tumour, associated with poor survival despite advances in surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. However, reported survival outcomes vary considerably across studies, highlighting the need for a comprehensive evaluation of survival patterns. Methods The inverse-variance weighting method was used to pool median survival values. To address substantial heterogeneity among studies, subgroup analysis and meta-regression were performed. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the robustness of the pooled estimates. Additionally, the risk of bias of the included studies was evaluated. Results The meta-analysis included 14 studies reporting survival data for 4,594 patients with glioblastoma. The pooled median survival time was 14.80 months (95% CI: 14.70–14.90), with significant variability in survival estimates across studies. The participants had a mean age of 58.57 years, with a range of 45 to 70 years. Multiple surgeries likely reflect tumour recurrence and standard clinical management in selected patients rather than failure of the initial surgery. The weighted least squares (WLS) meta-regression indicates that no study-level association was identified between GTR proportion and median survival. Conclusions This systematic review and meta-analysis focus on glioblastoma patient survival after surgical resection, aiming to improve treatment strategies. It highlights the need for better prognostic precision and longer patient survival through research on biological profiling and personalized treatments, alongside long-term follow-up studies.