BACKGROUND: The standard treatment for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) 
is radiotherapy, although conventional fractionated radiotherapy (CFRT) may not 
be in the best interest of the patient. Instead, hypofractionated radiotherapy 
(HFRT) may shorten the treatment period and reduce related costs for this 
treatment, which is typically palliative in nature.
METHODS: This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated survival outcomes 
among patients who received HFRT or CFRT for DIPG. The PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, 
Cochrane Central Register, and Scopus databases were searched to identify 
relevant studies. Overall survival was the primary outcome of interest and 
progression-free survival was the secondary outcome of interest.
RESULTS: The search identified a total of 2376 reports, although only 4 reports 
were ultimately included in the meta-analysis. The studies included 88 patients 
who underwent HFRT and 96 patients who underwent CFRT. Relative to CFRT, HFRT 
provided comparable outcomes in terms of overall survival (hazard ratio [HR]: 
1.07, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.77-1.47) and progression-free survival 
(HR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.75-1.45).
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this meta-analysis suggest that CFRT and HFRT 
provide similar survival outcomes for patients with DIPG.