Clinical observation in Temozolomide combined with radiotherapy in treatment of postoperative malignant glioma

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficiency and safety of temozolomide administered concomitantly and adjuvantly to three dimensional conformal radiotherapy versus three dimensional conformal radiotherapy alone in patients with postoperative malignant glioma.METHODS:Forty-one postoperative patients with pathologically confirmed malignant glioma were randomly assigned to receive Temozolomide,concomitantly with three dimensional conformal radiotherapy(experiment group,n=18),followed by six cycles of temozolomide,or three dimensional conformal radiotherapy alone(control group,n=23).RESULTS: The overall response rates(CR+PR) were 66.67% in experiment group,including 4(22.22%)patients with complete responses and 8(44.44%)partial responses,and 34.78% in the control group,including 3(13.04%) patients with complete responses and 5(21.74%) partial responses,and with significant difference between the 2 groups,P=0.044.The 1-,2-,and 3-year survival rates of patients in the experiment group were 94.44%,83.33%,61.11%,and 60.87%,47.83%,30.43% in the control group.The median recurrent period in the experiment group were 21 months and 17 months in the control group,and with singnificant difference,and P were 0.036,0.021,0.049 and 0.041 respectively.CONCLUSION: Three dimensional conformal radiotherapy with temozolomide seems to be more effective than radiotherapy alone in malignant glioma,and no more adverse effect.