How do you manage the timing of adjuvant therapy in a patient with a glioblastoma and a post-operative surgical site infection?

Topics: Radiation Oncology • Neuro-Oncology

Would you delay/defer adjuvant radiation and/or temozolomide until completion of IV antibiotics? Would you still treat with a significant skull defect after removal of the bone flap?

Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution

There have been several studies on the timing of adjuvant therapy for glioblastoma including our institution https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26440447. In general, our practice has been to start adjuvant radiotherapy as soon as reasonably possible. If a glioblastoma patient has postoperative surg...

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Radiation Oncologist at Mountain Radiation Oncology
A neurosurgeon previously in our region proposed t...

Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution

Luckily, this situation of a postoperative infection delaying treatment for a GBM doesn’t come up too often. Because while waiting for the infection to resolve, the GBM has sometimes progressed/recurred, requiring a discussion about second debulking surgery (which the surgeons are always...

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