Background and purpose: The subventricular zone (SVZ) is an important niche for neural stem cells but probably also for brain tumor propagating cells, including the glioblastoma stem cell. The SVZ may become a target for radiation therapy in glioblastoma patients. However, reports studying the effect of irradiation of the SVZ on glioblastoma patient survival show conflicting results. We studied the correlation between incidental SVZ radiation dose and survival in a cohort of isocitrate dehydrogenase-wildtype (IDHwt) glioblastoma patients with inclusion of important survival prognosticators.
Patients and methods: In this retrospective analysis, only adult patients with supratentorial IDHwt glioblastoma were included who were treated with temozolomide-based chemoradiotherapy after surgery. The SVZ was contoured on the radiotherapy planning imaging. Cox proportional regression overall survival (OS) analysis was used to study the correlation between SVZ dose and survival. Age, Karnofsky Performance Score, extent of resection and O6-methylguanine-methyl-DNA-transferase gene promoter (MGMTp) methylation were used as covariates in multivariate analysis.
Results: In total, 137 patients were included. Median OS was 13.3 months. The MGMTp methylation was present in 40% of cases. Ipsilateral SVZ (iSVZ) mean dose was 44.4 Gy and 27.2 Gy for the contralateral SVZ (cSVZ). Univariate survival analysis showed an inverse relationship between cSVZ mean dose and OS (HR 1.029 (1.003-1.057); p= .032). However, there was no correlation between cSVZ mean dose and OS in multivariate analysis. iSVZ dose did not correlate with survival.
Conclusion: In this cohort of 137 IDHwt glioblastoma patients, iSVZ did not correlate with OS. Higher cSVZ dose was inversely correlated with OS in univariate survival analysis but lost its significance in multivariate analysis, including MGMTp-methylation. Hence, the correlation between SVZ radiation and glioblastoma patient survival remains unclear. Carefully designed prospective studies are needed to provide unequivocal results on this controversial topic.
Keywords: Glioblastoma; IDH-wildtype; MGMT-methylation; radiation therapy survival; subventricular zone.