RT-17 RADIOTHERAPY FOR INTRACRANIAL AND SPINAL EPENDYMOMAS. A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS

• Published in: Neuro-oncology (Charlottesville, Va.) Va.), 2014-11, Vol.16 (suppl 5), p.v191-v191
• Main Authors: Lachi, P., Syed, F., Keshava, R., Syed, A., Nair, D., Joseph, D., Irrakula, M., Krishna, V., Pamidighantam, S., Naidu, K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1522-8517; 1523-5866
• DOI: 10.1093/neuonc/nou270.14

INTRODUCTION: This retrospective analysis was performed to examine the outcome of patients with histiologically confirmed ependymomas of the brain or spinal cord who received post operative radiotherapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients with histologically confirmed ependymoma who were treated at our institute from Jan 2008 - July 2013 were evaluated retrospectively. Survival was compared by age, location of tumor, KPS and extent of using cox regression analysis. RESULTS: A total of 43 patients were analyzed of which 33 had intra cranial tumors and 10 had primary spinal ependymomas. Among the intra cranial tumors, 18 were supra tentorial and 15 were located in the posterior fossa. The series consisted of 23 males and 20 females in the age range of four to 62 years. Using the WHO classification, 23 patients had grade II and 20 patients had grade III ependymomas. Gross total resection was done in 20 patients (46.5%) and the resection was subtotal in 23 (53.5%) patients. All patients received post operative radiotherapy with doses ranging from 40 - 60 Gy. Thirty three patients with intracranial tumors received focal radiotherapy to the brain, nine patients received local radiotherapy to spinal lesion and one patient received craniospinal radiotherapy. On multivariate analysis, age, KPS, location and grade did not show correlation with survival. Only the extent of surgical resection was found to be significant variable. Patients with gross total resection had a median survival of 81 months and patients with subtotal resection had a median survival of 5 months (p= 0.006). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of extent of surgical resection in the clinical outcome in patients with ependymomas.