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