Patterns of Care and Outcomes of Adjuvant Radiotherapy for Meningiomas: A Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare Linked Analysis

Background: The role of adjuvant stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and fractionated radiotherapy (XRT) are unknown in patients with resected meningiomas. Objective: To identify patterns of care and outcomes of adjuvant radiotherapy for meningiomas in the Linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Medicare data. Methods: A total of 1,964 patients older than 66 years included in the SEER-Medicare data, who were diagnosed with meningioma, and underwent craniotomy were included for analysis. Results: Patients were less likely to receive adjuvant therapy if they were older than 75 (OR 0.730, 95% CI 0.548-0.973), female sex (OR 0.731, 95% CI 0.547-0.978), or unmarried (OR 0.692, 95% CI 0.515-0.929). Patients were more likely to receive adjuvant treatment for Grade II/III tumors (OR 5.586, 95% CI 2.135-13.589), tumors over 5 cm (OR 1.850, 95% CI 1.332-2.567), or partial resection (OR 3.230, 95% CI 2.327-4.484). Yearly between 2000 and 2009, 10.65 - 19.77% of patients received adjuvant therapy. Although no survival benefit was seen with the addition of adjuvant therapy (p = 0.1236), the subgroup of patients receiving SRS had a decreased risk of death compared to those receiving surgery alone (aHR 0.544, 95% CI 0.318 - 0.929). Conclusion: Utilization of adjuvant XRT and SRS remained stable between 2000 and 2010. Male sex, young age, marriage, partial resection, Grade II/III tumors, and large tumors predicted the use of adjuvant therapy. For all patients, SRS decreased the risk of death compared to craniotomy alone.