Outcomes and predictors of response to fractionated radiotherapy as primary treatment for intracranial meningiomas

Background: Surgery is the primary treatment for most meningiomas. However, primary fractionated radio-therapy (fRT) remains an option for patients with larger meningiomas in challenging anatomic locations or patients at prohibitively high surgical risk. Outcome prediction for these patients is uncertain and cannot be guided by histopathology without available tumor tissue from surgery. Therefore, we aimed to assess the clinical factors that contribute to treatment failure in a large cohort of meningiomas consecutively treated with fRT as primary therapy, with the goal of identifying predictors of response.Methods: Patients treated with primary fRT for intracranial meningiomas from 1998 to 2017 were reviewed. Those who received primary surgical resection, radiosurgery, previous fRT, or had <6 months of clinical follow-up were excluded. We applied logistic regression and Cox regression modeling to ascertain key predictors of treatment failure, progression-free survival (PFS), and adverse events (AE) following fRT.Results: Our cohort included 137 meningiomas, 21 of which progressed after fRT (median PFS 3.45 years). Progressive meningiomas had a larger median gross tumor volume (GTV) compared to those that remained stable (19.1 cm(3) vs 9.6 cm(3), p = 2.86 x 10(-2)). GTV > 11.27 cm(3) was independently predictive of progression and larger GTV was associated with higher risk of significant (grades 3/4) AE following fRT. Cavernous sinus and optic nerve sheath meningiomas had overall excellent outcomes post-fRT.Conclusions: We present a large cohort of meningiomas treated with primary fRT and find GTV and anatomic location to be key predictors of outcome, adding to the complex treatment considerations for this heterogeneous disease.

Automated summary

Surgery is the primary treatment for most meningiomas, but primary fractionated radiotherapy (fRT) is an option for larger meningiomas in challenging locations or high-risk patients. This study aimed to identify predictors of treatment response by assessing clinical factors in a large cohort of meningiomas treated with primary fRT.