Rare-44. one year with optune(r) in routine use: first report on clinical experiences in germany

Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) are low intensity, intermediate frequency alternating electric fields. TTFields are delivered through 4 transducer arrays that are placed directly on the scalp to target the tumor. The delivery System is called Optune. Optune is an established, non-invasive anti mitotic therapy for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). This is the first report on clinical experiences with Optune in Germany (N=30 patients). All patients received a prescription in the Charité Berlin, one of over 60 certified Optune-centers in Germany. We treated newly diagnosed (N=17) and recurrent GBM patients (N=13). Our patient population includes female (N=11) and male (N=19) patients in an average age of 47.9 years (25-70 years) at the prescription date. With regards to the side effects we were faced with mild to moderate skin irritation in a few patients, but those were easily handled by the use of local steroid crème and didn’t cause significant treatment breaks. Patients’ feedback showed, that none of our patients experienced a loss of quality of life. We noticed that some patients need approximately 4 weeks to get used to the therapy. Whenever patients passed those four weeks they stayed on therapy as long as possible (patients outcomes are still under evaluation). We perform regular follow-up visits for a discussion about the patient compliance that we also evaluated in our patient...
Source: Neuro-Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: RARE TUMORS Source Type: research