Oligodendroglioma natural history

Prognosis
Oligodendrogliomas are generally felt to be incurable using current treatments. However compared to the more common astrocytomas, they are slowly growing with prolonged survival. In one series, median survival times for oligodendrogliomas were 11.6 years for grade II and 3.5 years for grade III.

Long-term survival is reported in a minority of patients. With aggressive treatment and close monitoring, it is possible to outlive the typical life expectancies for both low grade and high grade oligodendrogliomas. In rare cases, patients have survived for up to fifteen years post-diagnosis. Westergaard’s study (1997) showed that patients younger than 20 years had a median survival of 17.5 years. Another study shows a 34% survival rate after 20 years.