Efficacy of conventional radiotherapy for recurrent meningioma

Results of radiation therapy for 20 patients with recurrent meningioma were analyzed. The patients included 8 men and 12 women, with a median age of 5 5 years. All of the patients had undergone at least one operation prior to the reoperation preceding radiotherapy. Ten patients had benign meningiomas , while 4 and 6 patients had atypical and malignant meningiomas, respective ly, at the time of radiotherapy. The median radiation dose was 59.4 Gy (ran ge: 50-61.2 Gy). The local control rate at 5 years was 36% for all 20 patie nts (41% for benign meningiomas and 30% for atypical or malignant meningiom as). The 5-year survival rate was 47%. Excluding 2 patients whose follow-up period was shorter than the preradiotherapy interval from the previous ope ration, the postradiation recurrence-free period was longer than the prerad iotherapy interval in 50% (9/18) of the patients. No serious complications of radiotherapy were observed. Radiotherapy seemed to be effective in contr olling the tumor or delaying recurrence in at least half of the patients. H owever, higher doses of radiation, using sophisticated radiation techniques , may be necessary to obtain higher control rates.