Objective. Comparing the efficacy of the standard and modified schemes of temozolomide chemoradiotherapy in multimodality treatment of anaplastic astrocytoma patients.

Materials and methods.The study enrolled 72 patients with grade III anaplastic astrocytoma subjected to the standard treatment (temozolomide 75 mg/m2 per os 1 hour before the radiation treatment during the whole course of radiotherapy, n=37) or tomodified (temozolomide 75 mg/m2 per os 5 days a week 1 hour before the radiation treatment during the first and the last 2 weeks of radiotherapy, n=35) chemoradiotherapy regimens in the postoperative period in 2007—2018.

Results.The Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that the postoperative chemoradiotherapy scheme was not a prognostic factor affecting the overall survival of anaplastic astrocytoma patients included in this study (HR 1.040, 95% CI 0.516—2.094, p=0.913).No statistically significant differences in patient survivals were found in the groups of the conventional and the modified chemoradiotherapy regimens: one-, 3- and 5-year overall survivals were 90.7±5.1%, 54.6±9.5% and 50.0±9.8% vs 91.4±4.7%, 59.1±8.4% and 50.2±8.6%, respectively (p=0.913).

Conclusion. The postoperative employment of the modified temozolomide chemoradiotherapy scheme compared with the standard one makes it possible to reduce the total temozolomide dose almost 2-fold without deteriorating the treatment outcomes in anaplastic astrocytoma patients.