Survival and analysis of patients with various central nervous tumors who received post-operative radiation therapy: A retrospective study

Central Nervous Tumors constitute 3% of cancer cases worldwide. The incidence of CNS tumors in India ranges from 5-10 per 100,000 population, ranking 14 among all other tumors and accounting for 2% of all malignancies. The five most frequent tumors are astrocytoma (47.3%), Medulloblastoma (11.4%), craniopharyngioma (9.7%), ependymal tumors (4.8%), and nerve sheath tumors (4.1%). The tumor spectrum varies among different ages and sexes. The medical records of 238 patients were evaluated, out of which only 102 were fit for the study as per the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The 3-year median overall survival (OS) of 8 years and Progression Free Survival (PFS) of 7 years, while the 5-year median OS of 9 years and PFS of 7 years is recorded. Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive out of all histologies, with a 2-year survival of 31% and a median OS of 8 months, as per our study. We got some good results with brainstem glioma as well, with a 2-year survival of 40% and a median OS of 18 months. The survival in CNS tumours has improved widely with adjuvant concurrent chemotherapy with temozolamide along with radiation postoperatively and then adjuvant for 6months to 1 year and it was also seen that more complete the tumour resection done, the better was the survival seen.