Radiotherapy with or without temozolomide in elderly glioblastoma patients: Treatment results and prognostic factors.

Radiotherapy Plus Concurrent or Sequential Temozolomide for Glioblastoma in the Elderly: A Meta-Analysis

“…In this meta-analysis, 84% of patients had a KPS ≥70 in eight NRSs [17]–[19], [22]–[25], [28], and 73% had a KPS ≥80 in seven NRSs [19], [22]–[23], [25], [27]–[28], [30]. The efficacy of the aggressive combination of RT/TMZ, however, was less justified in those patients with a lower KPS.…”

“…1). Of the NRSs, five had a prospective design [5], [16], [25], [28], [32], 16 had a retrospective design [15], [17]–[24], [26]–[27], [29]–[31], [33]–[34], and five were published in abstract [15], [17], [31], [33]–[34]. The characteristics of the included NRSs are summarized in Table 1.…”

“…One study reported a cohort with all patients aged over 80 years [23]. Four NRSs with patients <65 years were also included because most of their patients were eligible for our study [17], [25], [27]–[28].…”

“…The risk of bias in the eligible NRSs was thus judged based on those variations, as described in Table S2. For OS analysis, eight NRSs were considered to be of lower risk [16], [19], [22], [25]–[26], [28]–[30], four were of higher risk [18], [23]–[24], [27], and four were of unclear risk [5], [17], [21], [32]. For PFS analysis, four NRSs were considered to be of lower risk [16], [22], [26], [28], four were of higher risk [18], [23]–[24], [27], and one was of unclear risk [32].…”

“…Thirteen included NRSs [15]–[17], [19], [21], [23]–[28], [30]–[31] (Table 1), along with a substantial number of uncontrolled studies [5], [35]–[42] (Table 3), had incorporated a safety analysis in which elderly patients were able to tolerate combined treatment. However, certain toxicities, and especially hematological adverse events (HAEs), were commonly observed.…”