Quality of life and outcomes of patients operated on for glioblastoma at the Yaoundé General Hospital

Objective: Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive primary malignant brain tumor in adults, with a poor prognosis despite multimodal treatment. This study aimed to describe the diagnostic aspects, therapeutic strategies, quality of life and outcomes of patients operated on for glioblastoma at the Yaoundé General Hospital. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at the Yaoundé General Hospital. Included were 32 patients who underwent surgery for glioblastoma with histological evidence from January 2019 to June 2025. Data were collected from medical records and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Quality of life was assessed using the Karnofsky and EORTC QLQ-C30 scores. Factors associated with the quality of life and outcomes where identified and a P value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Thirty-two patients were included, with a median age of 47.50 years [17.75 ;59.75], mean age of 42.9 ± 13.8 years and a female predominance (65.6%). The most common presenting symptom was neurologic deficit (68.8%). MRI was the main diagnostic modality (59.4%), and the tumor was most often located in the temporal lobe (30.8%). Surgery alone was performed in 56.3% of cases, while 25% received surgery followed by radiochemotherapy. The average overall survival was 10.2 months, increasing to 13.4 months in patients who received the full multimodal treatment. Quality of life scores were also better in this group. Age greater than 60 was found to be significantly associated with poor outcome. Conclusion: Glioblastoma affects all ages in our setting. Combined therapeutic strategies, especially the addition of radiochemotherapy after surgery, were associated with longer survival and better quality of life. Multidisciplinary management remains essential to improve outcomes.