PROGNOSTIC OF GLIAL TUMOURS: PRESENTATION OF THE PROBLEM WITH SOLUTION.

A study of glial tumours involving 192 cases is presented. Different issues are addressed: (i) the interrelationships between the histological variables, (ii) the problem of the prediction of the survival time, (iii) the causal role of the variables in the progress of the disease. We propose a three-level grade which can be defined alternatively with perivascular lymphocites or with the signs necrosis and neovascularization. We constructed a predictive model based on the Cox model in which the variables were chosen according to Akaike's criterion. In the explanatory analysis we dropped the variables which could be considered as consequences rather than causes of the disease and we first tested groups of variables (factors): we found that age, the topology and the histology of the tumour were explanatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]