Proton radiotherapy yielded good tumor control in pediatric medulloblastoma

2011 ASTRO Annual Meeting

MIAMI - Proton radiotherapy resulted in good tumor control and mitigation of neurocognitive and hearing effects in pediatric patients with medulloblastoma.

Torunn I. Yock, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues conducted a prospective trial of proton radiotherapy in 60 patients from May 2003 to December 2009. The patients ranged in age from 3.5 years to 22 years. All patients had surgery of the primary tumor, followed by proton radiotherapy with or without concurrent chemotherapy and adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy.

The median follow-up was 3.2 years. For the entire group, the 3-year OS was 87% and the 3-year PFS was 81%. For standard risk patients (n=44), the 3-year OS was 90% and the 3-year PFS was 83%. For high-risk patients (n=15), the 3-year OS was 82% and the 3-year PFS was 76%.

Fifty-one patients were evaluated with a neurocognitive evaluation at baseline and 31 of these had a follow-up evaluation. The mean Full Scale Intelligence Quotient was 107 at baseline and 101 at follow-up. Verbal Intelligence Quotient was 110 at baseline and 109 at follow-up. Performance Intelligence Quotient was 106 at baseline and 102 at follow-up.

The researchers collected 160 audiograms, 139 of which were sufficient for analysis. Fifty-three patients had baseline audiograms and 37 patients had at least one follow-up audiogram. Grade-3 or -4 hearing deficit was present in 4.8% of the ears at baseline and in 16.7% of the ears at follow-up.

For more information:

Yock TI. #225. Presented at: the 2011 ASTRO Annual Meeting; Oct. 2-6, 2011; Miami.

Disclosure: Dr. Yock received grant funding from the NIH/NCI and from the MGH Federal Share/NCI grand funds.

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