Preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy in hypervascular, high-grade supratentorial astrocytomas

From a group of ten patients with hypervascular, high-grade, supratentorial astrocytomas, five were treated with pre-operative radiotherapy alone, and five with radiotherapy in combination with cytostatic drugs. The aim was to investigate the timing of intracranial operations in the multimodality therapy of brain tumors. The tumor size was diminished only in one case, but tumor vascularization was reduced in half of the cases by the pre-operative treatment. Survival was not improved. Surgical treatment still should be the first of the therapeutic measures. Pre-operative radiotherapy may be of value to reduce tumor vascularization in hypervascular, centrally localized tumors.