'Leading Edge' Radiosurgery May Prolong Survival in Glioblastoma

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer, have a median survival of approximately 16 months. In a study presented at the 17^th International Leksell Gamma Knife Society Meeting in New York, researchers have studied the effects of “Leading Edge” radiosurgery on patient outcomes.

“Leading Edge” is an aggressive and strategic radiosurgery performed on patients with life-threatening brain cancer that combines Gamma Knife radiation treatment and diagnostic radiology technology, such as Multivoxel MR-Spectroscopy scans.

Christopher Duma, MD, said although people imagine that tumors grow like snowballs, GBM is different because the tumor cannot be removed because the tumor cells intermix with normal brain tissues. Taking the white matter pathways, GBM migrates throughout the brain. Duma and his research team found that malignant gliomas routinely spread throughout the brain in predictable patterns along these pathways.

For 15 years, the investigators studied 109 patients with newly-diagnosed GBM and found that when “Leading Edge” treatment was used, patients had a median survival of 23 months. In addition, researchers found the survival rate was 19% for 3 years, 12% for 5 years, and 7% for 6 years. This is an improvement from the previous 16-month survival time for patients with GBM.