Meningiomas: Clinical Outcome and Survival after External Fractionated Radiation Therapy

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of external fractioned radiation therapy in the treatment of intracranial meningiomas. Patients and Methods: 37 patients with meningiomas were investigated from the files of outpatient clinic during period 2002-2006. All patients received post operative radiotherapy, conventional radiotherapy technique using supervolt-age lineac-6Mv X-ray photons. Resulls: The median age was 42 years; headache was the main presenting symptom (70.3%) while neurological deficit was noticed only in (27%) of cases. 35.1% underwent craniotomy and biopsy 43% underwent subtotal excision while total excision was performed in 21.6%. The most common pathological subtype was meningothelial meningiomas (37.8%). The mean radiation dose received was 55.81 Gy±3.99. Complete remission (C.R.) occurred in 10.8%; partial response (P.R.) in 16.2% stable disease in (S.D.) 45.9%. The 2 year progression free survival (PFS) was 40% and overall survival (OAS) was 51.4%. Complications of the treatment were mild, mainly headache in (48.65%) encephalopathy in (8.11%). There was no significant correlation between doses of radiotherapy and response rate.