The identification of relevant tumor and patient characteristics is likely to aid in choosing the best treatments for each glioma patient, in enhancing definition of homogeneous subgroups for clinical trials based on uniform prognosis for rapid treatment evaluation, and in providing better prognostic information to patients. To identify relevant characteristics, this study will examine survival in relationship to several tumor markers with potential prognostic value, patient characteristics known to be prognostic (such as age), and those factors as yet unstudied in relation to glioma prognosis 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, and other demographic factors. The study's specific aims are to: (1) Determine vital status through 2004 and relevant treatment information or 881 population based adult onset glioma cases diagnosed between 1991-94 and 1997-99 and interviewed as part of the San Francisco Bay Area Adult Glioma Study (an ongoing NCI funded study of the genetic and molecular epidemiology of adult glioma). (2) Use Cox regressions and recursive partitioning analysis to determine survival as a function of both established, potential, and as yet unstudied prognostic indicators; (3) Validate results obtained from aim 2 in newly diagnosed GM patients on clinical trial protocols at UCSF. We will collect blood, buccal and tumor specimens and clinical and brief questionnaire data for newly diagnosed patients seen at the UCSF Neuro-Oncology Service from July 1, 2002-June 30, 2006. Promising markers identified in aim 2 will be assayed for 100 of these GM cases on clinical trial protocols and incorporated into a validation survival analysis. This study provides a unique opportunity to examine survival in a large, population-based group of patients with epidemiologic risk factor data, constitutive DNA specimens, and tumor marker data and thus to preliminarily evaluate markers that will then be incorporated into prospective clinical trials for validation.
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