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Radiotherapy for malignant gliomas in the
elderly
Brada M, Stenning SP
The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Trust,
Downs Road, Sutton, Surrey, UK.
While fractionated external beam radiotherapy remains the principal treatment in
patients with histologically verified malignant glioma, its use in older
patients and in patients with adverse prognostic features has not been subject
to randomized studies.
Hypofractionated partial brain irradiation offers a short, well-tolerated
treatment with a palliative benefit for patients with a predicted median
survival of less than 6 months.
To assess its true efficacy in terms of survival and quality-of-life gain
requires a formal randomized comparison with supportive care either alone or in
combination with palliative chemotherapy and with radical radiotherapy.
On present evidence, palliative radiotherapy remains the appropriate treatment
for older patients and those with adverse prognostic features, but the final
choice should be based on the patient's wishes moderated by the clinician's
perception of the gain of treatment.
PMID: 14765389 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14765389
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