Older Patients With Brain Cancer Benefit From Aggressive Treatment

OLDER PATIENTS WITH BRAIN CANCER BENEFIT FROM AGGRESSIVE TREATMENT

Researchers in Cleveland say their study reveals that older patients will benefit from aggressive surgery and radiation therapy. The scientists say their research focused on patients with malignant brain tumors and compared the outcomes of treatment in that group with patient between 65 years of age and 75 years of age. They claim the study reveals that the older patients benefit just as much from aggressive treatment as do their younger cohorts.

Doctors from University Hospitals Case Medical Center looked at records from nearly 2000 patients who were treated for two types of brain malignancies, glioblastoma multiforme, and anaplastic astrocytoma, between 1991 and 1999.

The researchers looked at whether patients received a biopsy only, surgery only, biopsy and radiation, surgery and radiation, or surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

The odds of undergoing aggressive treatment – surgery followed by radiation with or without chemotherapy, which is the “standard of care” in the United States in younger individuals – decreased significantly in individuals who were 75 years old or older, the researchers conclude. The findings suggest that older patients with brain tumors do not receive the more aggressive, effective therapies and hence have worse survival, they write.

Source: Journal of Neurosurgery, April, 2008