Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2019 , Vol 22, Issue 1
HYPOFRACTIONATED RADIOTHERAPY AND CONCOMITANT TEMOZOLOMIDE FOR HIGH-GRADE GLIAL TUMORS IN ELDERLY PATIENTS
İlknur KAYALI1, Rahşan HABİBOĞLU1, İrem SARICANBAZ1, Yıllar LEHİMCİOĞLU1
1Health Sciences University, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Department of Radiation Oncology, Ankara, Turkey DOI : 10.31086/tjgeri.2019150570 Introduction: Glioblastoma is the most common primary tumor in adults and age is a poor prognostic factor. Its main treatment is surgical removal. After surgery, radiotherapy is the mainstay treatment for glioblastoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival and toxicity of short?course radiotherapy (40 Gy in 15 fractions) and temozolomide.

Materials and Method: A total of 22 patients over 65 years received hypofractionated radiotherapy (40 Gy in 15 fractions) and temozolomide (75 mg/m2/day).

Results: No grade 3 and 4 leukopenia or thrombocytopenia occurred among the patients. The median survival for patients with grade IV disease (including gliosarcoma) was 7 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 3.0-10.9] and that of patients with grade III disease was 2 months (95% CI, 0-35.6). There was no need to stop or delay the treatment.

Conclusion: Standard and short-course radiotherapy and temozolomide were found to be equally effective to prevent disease progression and salvage treatment. Notably, elderly patients find it difficult to visit a hospital everyday. Moreover, long-term therapies are financially and physically burdensome for them. Besides, comorbidities are seen often in the elderly. Keywords : Aged; Glioblastoma; Astrocytoma; Radiation Dose Hypofractionation; Radiotherapy