Intracranial HPC is a rare disease, and it is also rare in the literature for any single study having a large case number and a satisfactory length of follow-up. In our present report on 66 patients, some of our findings concur with the previously published results in the literature, but some do not. Impact of the extent of tumor resection have been examined by several papers, and complete tumor resection was shown to play a pivotal role for both local control and survival (6, 13, 18–22). In our study, however, GTR did not affect the treatment results. This may be explained by that 90% of our patients had GTR and thus making it difficult to detect a difference statistically when compared with the small number of patients with residual tumor.
Most studies investigating the effect of PORT in intracranial HPC were based on single center analysis with a limited patient number, and the results were often contradictory. Meta-analyses and studies based on accumulated database have been conducted to overcome the problems of small case series, but their results were also inconsistent (23–25). Although the role of PORT in the GTR patients is not clear, the general consensus is that PORT is beneficial for patients undergoing STR. Some studies found that PORT following STR improves both RFS and OS compared with STR alone (7, 24–27), and the others reported that PORT following GTR may also prolong OS (23, 25, 27, 28) or improve local control (29, 30). Contrary to the above, some authors have reported that PORT after GTR has no impact on survival (5, 24, 31) or that PORT should not be used except for patients with recurrences (32, 33). In our study, we have found that PORT after surgery has no significant impact on the overall and disease-free survivals. This is in line with the results from Lee et al who underwent an analysis of practice pattern in the US for intracranial HPC and the PORT effect on its survival. They obtained data of 588 cases from the cancer registry, of which 323 (54.9%) received postoperative radiation. The 5-year overall survival for those receiving PORT 77.1%, not significantly different from the 83.8% for those who did not (p = 0.14). Postoperative radiation was not prognostic for survival on multivariable analysis (34).
SRS has been used for the patients with residual or recurrent intracranial HPCs (17, 32, 35–39). It was reported that postoperative SRS resulted in a better local tumor control in intracranial HPC patients (17). In our subgroup analysis, patients with SRS had a similar OS to the patients with IMRT. The biologically effective dose (BED) of the SRS and IMRT groups for HPC with an α/β ratio of 10 Gy was about 33.6–41.6 Gy10 and 72 Gy10, respectively. The biological effectiveness of the IMRT technique was much higher than the SRS method, yet resulting in no higher local control. The reason is not clear, but considering that SRS may be able to minimize the radiation to the adjacent tissues due to the high-precision delivery of radiation to HPC with a steep radiation dose gradient, it is a reasonable PORT option for HPC patients (32, 40). There is no consensus on the optimal radiation dose for single-fraction SRS for intracranial HPC. Some centers have reported an improved local control at higher tumor margin doses, ranging from 14 to 17 Gy (41, 42), but other studies using tumor margin doses exceeding 20 Gy did not show an improved local control (43, 44).
From our analysis, PORT does not seem to improve local control, RFS and overall survival. It should not be given to intracranial HPC patients without a positive margin. The weakness of this study includes the retrospective nature and a small sample size. To examine the exact impact of PORT on local control and survival and the different effects between IMRT and SRS as a PORT option requires a multi-center randomized trial with a larger sample size.
Data sharing statement:
All of the data are presented in this article except the MRI and pathological images which are available on request.