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70. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC)
Joint Meeting mit der Skandinavischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC) e. V.

12.05. - 15.05.2019, Würzburg

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Effect of tumour-treating fields plus chemotherapy in patients with recurrent glioblastoma

Der Effekt von „tumor-treating fields“ als Zugabe zu Chemotherapie in Patienten mit Glioblastom-Rezidiv

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  • presenting/speaker Philipp Spindler - Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Berlin, Deutschland
  • Julia Onken - Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Berlin, Deutschland
  • Peter Vajkoczy - Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Berlin, Deutschland
  • Martin Misch - Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Berlin, Deutschland

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 70. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Skandinavischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Würzburg, 12.-15.05.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2019. DocP207

doi: 10.3205/19dgnc543, urn:nbn:de:0183-19dgnc5436

Published: May 8, 2019

© 2019 Spindler et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objective: In 2017, Stupp et al. claimed the beneficial effect of tumor-treating fields (TTFields) in first-line treatment of primary Glioblastoma (GBM). In a single-center retrospective study, we investigated whether TTFields improves progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients with recurrent glioblastoma in addition to second- and third-line chemotherapy.

Methods: From 56 patients who were treated with TTFields at our center 20 (36%) started TTFields after recurrence of GBM. The TTFields, consisting of low-intensity, 200 kHz frequency, alternating electric fields, were delivered (≥18 hours/d) via four transducer arrays on the shaved scalp and connected to a portable device and was in addition to treatment with chemotherapy. In a matched-pair-analysis, we compared the PFS and OS with patients who received treatment with chemotherapy alone.

Results: There was no significant difference in the OS (18.5 month in the TTF-group and 14month in the chemotherapy-alone-group, p=0.37) and PFS (10.5 month in the TTF group and 6month in the chemotherapy-alone-group, p=0.09). Overall compliance rates were above 85%.

Conclusion: In our series, we could not show any additive effect of TTFields in combination to second- or third-line chemotherapy in means of OS or PFS. However, patients managed to stay on therapy for month with favorable compliance rates. We conclude that TTFields might be used in recurrent GBM as salvage therapy in case of contraindication for re-irradiation or chemotherapy.