Impact of hematotoxicity on chemotherapy and survival
hematotoxicity, HAE
Chemotherapy was completed (i.e. concomitant + 6 adjuvant courses of TMZ or 6 courses of CCNU/TMZ) in 40.6% (26 of 66) of patients receiving CCNU/TMZ and 59.4% (38 of 63) of patients receiving TMZ, as reported before [According to protocol, chemotherapy was stopped if a course was delayed by more than 6 weeks. More patients stopped chemotherapy due to hematotoxicity or resulting delay under CCNU/TMZ (19.7%, 13 of 66) than TMZ (6.3%, 4 of 63, p = 0.0358, Fig. The occurrence of HAE was not associated with shorter survival in the entire cohort (hazard ratio [HR] 1.06, 95% CI 0.73–1.54, p = 0.76) nor for both arms separately (TMZ: HR 1.08, 95% CI 0.63–1.85, p = 0.79, CCNU/TMZ: HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.61–1.75, p = 0.91).Survival was also similar in patients with a delay of 2–6 weeks for any course of chemotherapy compared to patients without such a delay, both in the entire cohort (HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.43–1.16, p = 0.17) and for both arms separately (TMZ: HR 0.59, 95% CI 0.29–1.21, p = 0.15; CCNU/TMZ: HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.40–1.66, p = 0.58).