Artikel
A German multi-center analysis of treatment effects and quality of life in adult patients with cranial ependymomas
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Veröffentlicht: | 21. Mai 2013 |
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Objective: We sought to retrospectively analyze outcome and quality of life of adult patients that were operated on intracranial ependymomas at 4 different surgical centers in 2 countries
Method: We retrospectively searched our patient-databases at our 4 institutions. All patients were attempted to contact via telephone to assess Quality of life at the time of the telephone interview. The standard EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the EORTC QLQ-Brain Cancer Module (QLQ-BN20) were used.
Results: 64 patients with adult intracranial ependymomas were included in the study. 18 (28.1%) patients had WHO Grade I, 33 (51.6%) patients WHO Grade II and 13 (20.3%) patients WHO Grade III tumors. 42 (65.6 %) tumors were located infratentorially and 22 (34.4 %) tumors supratentorially. Mean follow-up was 67 months (range 0-545). In 46 (76.6%) patients a complete resection could be achieved (WHO Grade I: 17; WHO Grade II: 19; WHO Grade III: 10). During the follow-up period 10 (15%) patients died.Median Overall Survival (OS) was 47 months. The only factor that was statistically significantly associated with increased survival was age <55 years (p< 0.001). Supratentorial location was statistically significantly correlated with shorter PFS (p=0.048). In WHO Grade II tumors local irradiation did not lead to increased PFS (p=0.888) or OS (p=0.801). Even in the incompletely resected Grade II tumors local irradiation did not lead to a statistically significant benefit in PFS (p=0.911). Lastly we found that radiation therapy had a significant, negative impact on patients QoL. In a multivariate analysis irradiated patients had significantly more “Fatigue” than non-irradiated patients.
Conclusions: Supratentorial location should alert treatment providers to close follow-up of ependymoma patients. Radiation therapy in WHO Grade II needs to be reassessed in tumor boards in view of the questionable effect on survival and negative influence on patients’ fatigue levels.