Radiation therapy in the treatment of meningioma: the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy experience 1970 to 1982.

The standard treatment for meningioma is complete resection. However, complete resection is often not possible because of tumor location and extent. To evaluate the usefulness of radiation therapy in patients with unresected or residual tumor, we reviewed the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy experience from 1970 to 1982 (n = 31). Histologic diagnosis was available in 27 patients. The patients were treated with megavoltage radiation to a mean dose of 5,280 rad (3,780 to 6,050 rad) in 180- to 200-rad daily fractions using multiple static or rotational fields. The median follow-up period was 45 months, with a range of four to 156 months. The overall four-year relapse-free survival (RFS) rate was 72%. All relapses occurred within the first 37 months; the mean time to relapse was 31 months. The four-year RFS was the same whether patients were treated at initial presentation or after recurrence (74% v 67%, respectively). There was no difference in RFS for patients treated after partial resection or those patients with no resection (76% v 64%). No patients with malignant meningioma were relapse free three years after radiation therapy. Complications included decreased auditory acuity in three patients and retinopathy in one patient. These data suggest that moderate dose radiation therapy can offer long-term symptom-free survival with few complications in patients having unresected or partially resected benign meningioma.