A simple blood test may flag a harder course in glioblastoma
Original title: Pretreatment Lactate Dehydrogenase-to-Albumin Ratio Identifies an Early Adverse Prognostic Profile in IDH-Wildtype Glioblastoma: A Real-World Cohort Study.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was tested in people. That is the most reliable kind of research we share.
Doctors only looked back at past patient records, and the test still needs checking by other teams.
The short version
A routine blood test done before treatment may show who faces a tougher road.
What was studied. Doctors looked back at records of 134 people with IDH gene change: A small change in a tumor's IDH gene. It is the first thing your team looks at when naming an adult glioma, and it can affect which treatments are offered. Your pathology report says whether your tumor has it. See the glossary wildtype glioblastoma: A glioma that is given grade 4. Grade 4 is the highest grade there is. The tumor grows fast. Treatment usually starts soon after it is found. It often means surgery, and then radiation and chemotherapy. See the glossary. They checked a blood measure taken before treatment began. It compares two things in the blood, called LDH and albumin.
What they found. People with a high blood measure lived a shorter time. They lived 5.5 months, compared with 16.0 months for the others. Time before the tumor grew again was 5.2 months, compared with 10.6 months. Among the 104 people who got temozolomide: A chemotherapy taken as a capsule, used for some brain tumors. Your team checks your blood counts while you are on it. See the glossary, a high measure was linked to the tumor getting worse.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: This blood test is simple and already used in many hospitals. It may help doctors spot people who need closer watching early on. It adds to what doctors already know from scans and tissue tests.
What it doesn't mean: This is not a treatment and not a cure. The study only looked back at past records. It cannot prove the blood measure causes shorter survival. Other teams must check it in new groups of patients first. A high result does not tell one person what will happen to them.
Source: PubMed, October 10, 2026 · Read the original
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