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Combo treatment for aggressive brain
tumor
HealthDay News -- Treatment with a combination of the
chemotherapy drug temozolomide and radiotherapy increases
survival for glioblastoma brain tumor patients better
than radiotherapy alone, and the improvement persists
for up to five years, say Swiss researchers.
Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive form
of primary brain tumor. For more than three decades,
surgery followed by radiotherapy was the standard treatment
for glioblastoma, but the average life expectancy was
just nine to 12 months.
In 2004, a study reported that combined treatment with
temozolomide and radiotherapy (TMZ/RT) reduced glioblastoma
patients’ risk of dying by 37 percent, compared
with radiotherapy alone. Two years after treatment,
27 percent of those who had received TMZ/RT were alive,
compared with 10 percent who had received radiotherapy
alone.
But it wasn’t known whether this survival benefit
would persist over time.
In the new study, a team at the University of Lausanne
Hospitals looked at the long-term outcomes of people
in the large international trial. Three years after
treatment, 16 percent of those in the TMZ/RT group were
still alive, compared with 4 percent of the radiotherapy
only group. Survival was 12.1 percent and 3 percent,
respectively, after four years, and 9.8 percent and
1.9 percent after five years. The improvements in survival
among people who received TMZ/RT were seen across all
subgroups, including people considered to have a poor
prognosis, such as more elderly people and those whose
tumor could not be surgically removed.
The study was published online and in the May print
issue of The Lancet Oncology. The researchers suggested
that testing tumors for the methylation status of the
MGMT gene would identify people most likely to benefit
from TMZ/RT. Though this combination treatment can prolong
survival, it is not a cure, they noted.
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