Impact of Delays in Initiating Radiotherapy for Patients with Primary Glioblastoma

Abstract

Aim: To determine the effect of waiting time for radiotherapy on the overall survival of patients with glioblastoma Patients and methods: We examined records of patients with glioblastoma who were referred to radiotherapy after surgery or biopsy, any age, radical intent or palliative intent with or without chemotherapy. Waiting time was defined in two ways: time from biopsy to radiotherapy and time from presentation to radiotherapy department to start of radiotherapy Results: There were 102 patients in the study with a median follow up of 9 months. All patients have a biopsy or debulking surgery and postoperative radiotherapy. The surgical procedures were as follows: biopsy only in 34 (33,3%) patients and total resection in 68 (66,6%) patients. 78 patients received radiotherapy alone and 24 patients received radiotherapy plus continuous daily temozolomide, followed by six cycles of adjuvant temozolomide. Median times and ranges of waiting times from biopsy and presentation time to radiotherapy were 52 days (11±110 days) and 32 days (4±80 days) respectively. In univariate analysis older age and absence of total resection were all significantly associated with a reduction in overall survival. While in multivariate analysis, only the absence of total resection was the variable significantly associated with reduced overall survival. Conclusion: It was not possible in this analysis to evidence of the impact of delays in initiating radiotherapy for patients with glioblastoma.