THE OUTCOMES OF GLIOBLASTOMA MULTIFORME: THE UNIVERSITY MALAYA MEDICAL CENTRE EXPERIENCE 2008-2018 Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and biologically aggressive adult primary brain tumour. The standard of care treatment is maximal safe resection (MSR) followed by post-operative concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) and adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ). This retrospective single-centre study was carried out at a tertiary academic hospital, University Malaya Medical Centre, between 2008–2018. This study aims to analyse the overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) and identify the prognostic factors affecting survival in our cohort of patients. Data including patient demographics, clinicopathologic characteristics and treatment characteristics were collected and correlated with survival. Survival analysis was performed with the Kaplan–Meier method. The multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazard regression was performed to evaluate the prognostic clinicopathological for survival. A total of 100 patients were analysed. The median OS and PFS for the whole sample population was seven months (95% CI = 4-10 months) and four months (95% CI = 3.2-4.8 months) respectively. The factors associated with worse median OS were no adjuvant treatment (HR = 6.03; 95% CI = 2.40-15.16; p = 0.00), age older than 65 years old (HR = 2.22; 95% CI = 0.10-4.96; p = 0.05), post-operative ECOG PS >2 (HR = 6.13; 95% CI = 1.70-22.11; p = 0.01), and the temporal-lobe-located tumour (HR = 3.89; 95% CI = 1.51-10.01; p = 0.01). The fundamental points that could be deduced from the observed difference in survival outcome from our study to the literature are (1) age and PS were the two crucial pre-treatment factors that influenced the outcome, and (2) radiotherapy (RT) was demonstrated as the essential treatment in GBM and that the dose fractionation played an essential role on the outcome.

Objective: The objective of this study was to prospectively collect and report treatment planning data in terms of organs at risk (OARs) sparing effect between deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) and free breathing (FB) computed tomography (CT) scans. This study also aims to identify potential planning parameters that could help in selecting patients most likely to benefit from DIBH. Methods: Thirty-eight patients with left-sided breast malignancy indicated for adjuvant radiotherapy underwent DIBH and FB CT simulation. All patients were planned with a three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) for both scans. Comparisons of dosimetric variables include heart Dmean, left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) Dmean/Dmax, left lung V30Gy, V20Gy, V10Gy, V5Gy, FB axial cardiac contact distance (FB-CCDax) and parasagittal CCD (FB-CCDps). Results: DIBH resulted in a statistically significant reduction of heart Dmean, LAD Dmean and Dmax. When DIBH was compared with FB, heart Dmean was 1.62 Gy versus 2.65 Gy; for LAD Dmean, 6.81 Gy versus 11.57 Gy; and for LAD Dmax, 22.66 Gy versus 31.93 Gy. Left lung dosimetry results consistently showed all the volume parameters of V5Gy to V30Gy for FB were significantly higher than that of DIBH. There was a significant positive correlation between FB-CCDax/FB-CCDps and mean heart absolute dose reduction. A meaningful positive correlation was observed for FB-CCDps beyond the cutoff length of 2cm. Conclusion Our study has confirmed the benefit of DIBH in reducing mean heart and lung dose in left-sided breast/chest wall radiotherapy. FB-CCDps is a potentially reliable parameter to guide us in selecting patients whom would benefit most for DIBH.