Patients and Radiotherapy Techniques
A total of 66 patients diagnosed with intracranial HPC were collected (Table 1). There were 35 males and 31 females with 83.3% having supratentorial lesions. Gross tumor resection (GTR) was conducted in 61 (92.4%) and subtotal tumor resection (STR) in 5 (7.6%) patients. Grade II HPCs were diagnosed in 35 (53%) patients, and grade III HPCs (anaplastic HPC) were diagnosed in 31 (47 %) patients. Twenty-nine (43.9%) patients had surgery followed by radiotherapy while thirty-seven (56.1%) had surgery alone. The differences in patient characteristics between the two groups with and without PORT were not statistically significant (Table 1). The median follow-up time after operation in all patients was 50.5 months (range, 2-153); it was 57 and 47 months in the surgery plus PORT and the surgery alone groups, respectively. For patients alive at the time of analysis, the median follow-up time was 66 months for the surgery plus PORT group and 58 months for the surgery alone group.
Of the twenty-nine patients with PORT after operation, 11 received IMRT and 18 had SRS (12 had gamma knife SRS and 6 had linac-based SRS) (Table 2). The clinical characteristics were not significantly different between the surgery and PORT groups; they were also similar between the PORT-IMRT and the PORT-SRS groups including the extent of tumor resection and the tumor grade. Eleven patients received fractionated IMRT with a median fraction number of 30 and a median prescription dose of 60 Gy (range 50-60 Gy). IMRT was delivered with 6 MV photons from linear accelerators (Varian Trilogy and Clinac IX; Elekta Synergy). Clinical target volume (CTV) was defined as the tumor cavity and/or the residual mass plus a 5-10 mm margin. An additional 3-5 mm was added to the CTV for planning target volume. Eighteen patients underwent gamma knife SRS with a single dose of 14-16 Gy at the margin of tumor (12 had gamma knife SRS and 6 had X ray SRS) (Gamma Knife, Elekta, Perfection; Varian Clinac 23ES). Table 3 presents the characteristics of the PORT patients and the surgery alone cohort matched with the PORT patients. The differences between the two groups were not improved after propensity score matching. At the time of the study cutoff day, 24 of the 29 patients in the PORT group and 25 of 37 patients in the surgery alone group were alive. Figure 1 shows the study framework including the initial patient treatments, local recurrence and salvage therapy after local recurrence.
Histological Findings
All of the 66 patients’ pathological examinations with Hematoxylin & Eosin (H&E) staining showed an extensively vascularized and cellular tumor. These tumors showed compact and uniform cells with a large number of small vascular cavities and compact reticular fibers. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining showed a strong positivity for CD34. The percentage of ki67 positivity was lower in grade II HPC compared with grade III tumors; the median percentage of positive staining for Ki67 was 2% (range 1% - 5%) in grade II HPC and 12% in grade III HPC (range 10% - 16%). There were more prominent nuclear fission and cell morphology heterogeneity in the higher grade HPC. IHC was negative for PR, S-100 and EM (Figure 2-1).
Imaging Findings
All of the patients had MRI examination before and after operation. After craniotomy, MRI was repeated at 3-6-month intervals in the first 3 years with and without contrast. The pre-contrast MRI showed a hypointense lesion on T1 weighted images (WI) and a heterogeneously hyperintense lesion on T2WI. A flow void signal was present in most tumor images, and cystic tumor necrosis and the dural tail sign were also very common. Contrast-enhanced MRI often showed markedly and heterogeneously enhanced lesions. Figure 2-2 showed one of the HPC patient’ MRI images before and after operation.
Local Control and Survival
The crude local control rates were 58.6% in the surgery plus PORT group and 67.6% in the surgery alone group (p= 0.714) (figure 3A). In the subgroup analysis of the PORT patients, they were 72.7% (8/11) in the IMRT group and 50% (9/18) in the SRS group (p = 0.960) (figure 3B).
The median RFS in the pathology grade II and III were 112 and 72 months, respectively (p = 0.001). Salvage surgery with or without PORT was conducted for most patients with local recurrence. The 5-year RFS rates in the surgery plus PORT group and surgery alone group were 56.4% and 74.6%, respectively.
The median OS in the surgery plus PORT and surgery alone groups were 122 months and 98 months, respectively (p = 0.169) (figure 3C). The median OS in the SRS and IMRT groups were 127 months and 73 months (p = 0.256) (figure 3D). The 5-year OS rates in the PORT and surgery alone groups were 75% and 90.9%, respectively.
With the propensity score matching, the crude local control rates were 58.6% in the surgery plus PORT group and 72.4% in the surgery alone group (p= 0.367) (figure 3E).
The median OS in the surgery plus PORT and surgery alone groups were 122 months and 93 months, respectively (p = 0.159) (figure 3F); the 5-year overall survival were 51.7% for the surgery plus PORT and 34.5% for the surgery alone (p = 0.289). The 5-year RFS were 65.5% for the surgery plus PORT and 82.8% for the surgery alone group (p = 0.230).
Prognostic Factors of OS and RFS
Age > 50 years is the only prognostic factor for OS by both the univariate (p = 0.024) and multivariate (p = 0.029) Cox regression analyses (table 4). The median OS time is 84 months in the older group (age > 50 years) and 122 months in the younger group (age < 50 years) (p = 0.018). The median RFS time is 72 months in the older group (age > 50 years) and 96 months in the younger group (age < 50 years) (p = 0.100). In Table 4, the 95% CI for location and resection were very large. The reason is that all the 11 infratentorial patients and all the STR patients were alive and therefore censored at the time of univariate and multivariate analysis making it impossible to obtain a statistical result.
The median RFS in the pathology grade II and III were 112 and 72, respectively (p = 0.001). Pathology grade is the only prognostic factor for RFS by both the univariate (p = 0.003) and multivariate (p = 0.005) Cox regression analyses (table 5).