Efficacy of sequential radiation and chemotherapy in treating glioblastoma with poor performance status

While the current standard of care after maximal safe resection for glioblastoma (GBM) is concomitant radiation and chemotherapy, the ideal therapy for patients with poor performance status remains in question due to concerns about treatment tolerance. We sought to evaluate an alternative regimen, sequential radiation and chemotherapy, to assess its efficacy as a treatment option for poorly performing patients.

We performed a retrospective analysis using the 2015 National Cancer Database in which the survival of patients with a KPS ≤ 70 who received sequential radiation and chemotherapy were compared to those who received radiation therapy alone. Survival outcomes were compared using Kaplan-Meier curves with log rank testing and Cox proportional hazard regression.

There were 84 patients analyzed in this study, all of whom had a KPS between 10 and 70. Of those analyzed, 73.8% received radiation therapy alone, and 26.2% received sequential radiation and chemotherapy. There was no difference in survival between the two treatment groups (p = 0.84). Patient age of 70 years or older (n = 31) was associated with decreased survival (HR 1.06 per year, p < 0.0001), regardless of KPS and a KPS of < 70 correlated with a near-significant trend toward worse survival (HR 1.63, p = 0.06).

Treatment with sequential radiation and chemotherapy in poorly performing patients is not associated with an advantage in survival outcome when compared to radiation alone in GBM patients with poor performance status.