Epidermal growth factor receptor activity and clinical outcome in glioblastoma and meningioma.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-r) activity in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM: n = 27) and meningioma (n = 18) was compared with clinical outcome. All patients with GBM were followed up to time of death. In patients with GBM there was no significant relationship between EGF-r activity and either patient survival time or age. EGF-r activity in patients with meningioma was neither related to age nor, at a median of 40 months after surgery, to clinical outcome. These results suggest that routine estimation of EGF-r activity in these intracranial tumours is not indicated.