CLINICAL STUDY Re-irradiation or re-operation followed by dendritic cell vaccination? Comparison of two different salvage strategies for relapsed high-grade gliomas by means of a new prognostic model Klaus Mu ¨ ller 1,2 • Guido Henke 3,4 • Sophie Pietschmann 1 • Stefaan van Gool 5 • Steven De Vleeschouwer 5 • Andre ´ O. von Bueren 6 • Inge Compter 7 • Carsten Friedrich 8 • Christiane Matuschek 9 • Gunther Klautke 2 • Rolf-Dieter Kortmann 1 • Thomas Hundsberger 10 • Brigitta G. Baumert 7,11 Received: 9 January 2015 / Accepted: 8 June 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract We aimed to compare two different salvage treatment strategies for relapsed high-grade glioma (HGG) patients by means of a new prognostic model. A simplified version of the so-called HGG-Immuno RPA model esti- mates the prognosis of relapsed HGG patients and distin- guishes three different prognostic classes (I = good, II = intermediate, III = poor). The model has been con- structed with a cohort of 117 patients whose salvage treatment consisted of re-operation followed by dendritic cell vaccination (ReOP ? DCV). However, using only the predictors histology, age and performance status, the sim- plified HGG-Immuno RPA model is basically independent from treatment. In the present study we applied the sim- plified model to the cohort used to construct the original HGG-Immuno RPA model and another cohort of 165 patients who underwent re-irradiation (ReRT) at relapse. Then, we compared the outcomes achieved by the two different salvage treatments in each prognostic class. The model predicted good, intermediate and poor prognosis for 11, 31 and 75 patients of the ReOP ? DCV cohort and for 20, 39 and 106 patients of the ReRT cohort, respectively. Neither of the two strategies was superior to the other. In the groups with good, intermediate and poor prognosis 12-months survival rates were 73, 59 and 25 % after ReOP ? DCV and 72, 36 and 23 % after ReRT, respec- tively. Being easy to handle and independent from treat- ment, the aforementioned model is useful for therapeutic decisions. ReRT and ReOP ? DVC seem to be equally effective. The choice of salvage treatment should be based on the expected side effects. Thomas Hundsberger and Brigitta G. Baumert have contributed equally to this article. & Klaus Mu ¨ller klausmueller1978@googlemail.com 1 Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany 2 Department of Radiation Oncology, Hospital Chemnitz, Bu ¨rgerstraße 2, 09113 Chemnitz, Germany 3 Department of Radiation Oncology, Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland 4 Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital Tu ¨bingen, Tu ¨bingen, Germany 5 Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, Catholic University Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 6 Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University Medical Center Go ¨ttingen, Go ¨ttingen, Germany 7 Department of Radiation Oncology (MAASTRO), GROW (School for Oncology & Developmental Biology), University of Maastricht Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands 8 Division of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Hemostaseology, Department of Woman’s and Children’s Health, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 9 Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University of Du ¨sseldorf, Du ¨sseldorf, Germany 10 Departments of Neurology and Haematology/Oncology, Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland 11 Clinical Cooperation Unit Neurooncology, Department of Radiation Oncology, MediClin Robert Janker Clinic & University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany 123 J Neurooncol DOI 10.1007/s11060-015-1844-8