Objective  To perform a retrospective analysis of the prognosis and influence factors of radiotherapy concurrent with chemotherapy and adjuvant temozolomide therapy in adult patients with high-grade brainstem glioma.

  Methods  Twenty-nine patients with pathological diagnosis of high-grade glioma (World Health OrganizationWHO Ⅲ and Ⅳ) from June 2012 to December 2013 were eligible for inclusion in the analysis. Demographic and clinical characteristics including age, gender, the time from morbidity to operation, the size of the lesion, the method of operation, the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) score, and the pathological grade were examined. The significance of related prognostic factors was evaluated via univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis. A P-value of < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

  Results  The median overall survival (OS) was 11.5 months. Univariate analysis showed that low WHO grade index was associated with better outcome (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis suggested that high KPS score (>60) and low WHO grade were associated with better survival.

  Conclusions  In this study, low pathological grade and high KPS score were independently associated with better survival among patients with high-grade brainstem glioma.