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Temozolomide and oral VP‐16 for children and young adults with recurrent or treatment‐induced malignant gliomas
Author(s) -
Korones David N.,
Smith Amy,
Foreman Nicholas,
Bouffet Eric
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.20510
Subject(s) - medicine , temozolomide , anaplastic astrocytoma , neutropenia , glioma , medulloblastoma , radiation therapy , chemotherapy , surgery , oncology , astrocytoma , pathology , cancer research
Background Children and young adults with recurrent or treatment‐induced malignant gliomas have limited responses to temozolomide or oral VP‐16 when either is administered as a single agent. We postulated that a combination of these two drugs for patients with recurrent or treatment‐induced malignant gliomas might result in better and more prolonged responses. A retrospective analysis was performed on patients treated with the combination of temozolomide and VP‐16. Procedure Eleven patients with recurrent or treatment‐induced malignant gliomas were treated with varying combinations of temozolomide (150–210 mg/m 2 /d for 5 days) and oral VP‐16 (50 mg/m 2 /d for 4–12 days). Responses were assessed by MRI scan, and data on clinical course and toxicity were retrospectively obtained from the medical record. Results The median age of the 11 patients was 17 years (range 5–23 years). Diagnoses included recurrent brain stem glioma (2), recurrent anaplastic astrocytoma (2), and glioblastoma (7) (3 treatment‐induced, 2 malignant transformations of lower grade tumors, 1 recurrence, and 1 second tumor arising 10 months after diagnosis of medulloblastoma). All 11 patients had received radiotherapy (including 4 who received craniospinal radiation), and 7 had prior chemotherapy. Nine patients were treated at first recurrence, two at second recurrence. One patient had a complete response (CR), six had partial responses (PR), and four had progressive disease (PD). The median progression‐free survival for the seven responding patients was 6 months (range 4–15+ months). There was one grade 4 neutropenia, but no other grade 3 or 4 toxicities. Conclusions These data suggest there is activity of temozolomide in combination with oral VP‐16 for children and young adults with recurrent malignant gliomas. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.