Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2014 , Vol 17, Issue 2
RADIOTHERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF ELDERLY GLIOBLASTOMA PATIENTS
Pervin HÜRMÜZ1, Gökhan ÖZYİĞİT1, Mustafa CENGİZ1, Deniz YÜCE2, Melis GÜLTEKİN1, Gözde YAZICI1, Gülnihan EREN1, Murat GÜRKAYNAK1, Faruk ZORLU1
1Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Radyasyon Onkolojisi Anabilim Dalı ANKARA
2Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Prevantif Onkoloji ANKARA
Introduction: The incidence of glioblastoma increases with advancing age. In this study we evaluated our therapeutic results in elderly patients with glioblastoma.

Materials and Method: The charts of 65 patients age ≥65 and treated between January 2002 and December 2011 in our department were assessed. Forty-five patients were male and the median age was 70 years (range, 65-84 years). Karnofsky performance status was ≥70 in 82% of the patients. Gross tumor resection was performed in 32 patients. The radiotherapy field was localized to the tumor (or tumor bed) in 59 patients and to the whole brain±localized field in the rest. The median treatment dose was 60 Gy(range, 20-60 Gy). Thirty-one patients received concomitant and 17 patients received adjuvant temozolomide.

Results: The median follow-up time was 5 months (range, 1-44 months). One and two-year survival rates for the whole group were 38.9% and 11.7%, respectively. Median survival times according to treatment fields were: 9 months in the localized group, 3 months in the whole brain group and 18 months in the whole brain+localized field group (p=0.04). Gender, performance status, radiotherapy dose, and the type of surgery did not significantly affect survival rates. Patients with midline tumors had poorer outcomes compared to other locations (p=0.01). Patients receiving adjuvant temozolomide had better overall survival (p=0.02).

Conclusion: Radiotherapy seems to be a feasible treatment strategy in elderly patients with glioblastoma. Although the patient number is small, the patients who received whole brain+localized field radiotherapy or adjuvant temozolomide had better survival in the current study. Keywords : Glioblastoma; Radiotherapy; Temozolomide; Aged