Radiation therapy has been considered the treatment of choice for many brain tumors in dogs, like glioma and intracranial meningioma.

A retrospective study was carried out, with information about patients treated between 2011 and 2015, in a veterinary referral hospital. The goals were set to evaluate the efficacy of this therapeutic approach and to search associations between different epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic features with the tumor type and the survival times. This study included 32 dogs diagnosed with intracranial meningioma and glioma which underwent radiation therapy. The clinical reports were analyzed. Two survival times were calculated: overall (OST) and post-treatment (PTST), from the diagnosis or the end of radiation, respectively, until death or end of the study period.

Sex and contrast enhancement exhibited statistically significant associations (p<0.05) with tumor diagnosis. These results showed a sexual predisposition of males for glial type and females for meningeal type and a greater specificity of contrast enhancement, observed on MRI, for meningioma. It was found that just the breed and the sex are prognostic factors, as they were significantly associated (p<0.05) with survival times. Boxer and Labrador retriever breeds and the female sex were considered as a survival benefit in these patients. Median values were 372 days for TSPT and 446.5 days for the TST. The 1- and 2-year survival rates were, respectively, 50% and 23.3%. Thus, radiation therapy is an effective treatment option for these neoplastic cases, with better results than other therapeutic approaches.

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