Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 9, 2025
The Clinical Application of Tumor Treating Fields Therapy in Glioblastoma
Published on: April 16, 2019
Accelerated hyper-versus normofractionated radiochemotherapy with temozolomide in patients with glioblastoma: a
Rainer J Klement1,2, Ilinca Popp3, David Kaul4,5
1Klinik für Strahlentherapie, Leopoldina Krankenhaus Schweinfurt, MVZ Leopoldina Krankenhaus, Robert-Koch-Straße 10, 97422, Schweinfurt, Germany. rainer_klement@gmx.de.
Background And Purpose:
The standard treatment of glioblastoma patients consists of surgery followed by normofractionated radiotherapy (NFRT) with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide chemotherapy. Whether accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy (HFRT) yields comparable results to NFRT in combination with temozolomide has only sparsely been investigated. The objective of this study was to compare NFRT with HFRT in a multicenter analysis.
Materials And Methods:
A total of 484 glioblastoma patients from four centers were retrospectively pooled and analyzed. Three-hundred-ten and 174 patients had been treated with NFRT (30 × 1.8 Gy or 30 × 2 Gy) and HFRT (37 × 1.6 Gy or 30 × 1.8 Gy twice/day), respectively. The primary outcome of interest was overall survival (OS) which was correlated with patient-, tumor- and treatment-related variables via univariable and multivariable Cox frailty models. For multivariable modeling, missing covariates were imputed using multiple imputation by chained equations, and a sensitivity analysis was performed on the complete-cases-only dataset.
Results:
After a median follow-up of 15.7 months (range 0.8-88.6 months), median OS was 16.9 months (15.0-18.7 months) in the NFRT group and 14.9 months (13.2-17.3 months) in the HFRT group (p = 0.26). In multivariable frailty regression, better performance status, gross-total versus not gross-total resection, MGMT hypermethylation, IDH mutation, smaller planning target volume and salvage therapy were significantly associated with longer OS (all p < 0.01). Treatment differences (HFRT versus NFRT) had no significant effect on OS in either univariable or multivariable analysis.
Conclusions:
Since HFRT with temozolomide was not associated with worse OS, we assume HFRT to be a potential option for patients wishing to shorten their treatment time.
