Al's Comment:

 This is a very important paper that shows a large benefit for Optune in the elderly (defined in this paper as 65 years old or older)..   The headline and the abstract missed the main point.  Read the entire paper. Bottom line is that if Optune (plus Temozolomide) is used correctly, that is over 75% of the time (over 90% was used in a different article with even better results but 75% might be an easier target for the elderly patients), there is a very large benefit over Temozolomide by itself or the combination at less than 75% usage.    Look at Figure 3 and table 4. They show that for those patients who used Optune over 75% of the time, the median survival was 21.7 months, compared to Optune at less than 75% with 12.5 months.   Looking at some other numbers, At the 3 year point, there were 20 patients still alive.  2 of them were on Temozolomide alone without Optune. 7 of them also used Optune but at less than 75% compliance, and 11 used Optune over 75%.    At 3.5 years, 9 patients were still alive.  None without Optune. 3 with Optune under 75% and 7 with Optune over 75%.  At 5 years, survival was 0% in the control group and 15% in the Optune group.      Look at https://virtualtrials.org/newsarticle.cfm?item=6607 for the paper looks at all of the patients - not just elderly. It shows a major benefit for compliance rate of 90%.


Posted on: 10/26/2021

Efficacy and Safety of Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) in Elderly Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma: Subgroup Analysis of the Phase 3 EF-14 Clinical Trial

 


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