Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015:2015:620643.
doi: 10.1155/2015/620643. Epub 2015 Mar 1.

Temozolomide and radiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone in high grade gliomas: a very long term comparative study and literature review

Salvatore Parisi  1 , Pietro Corsa  2 , Arcangela Raguso  2 , Antonio Perrone  2 , Sabrina Cossa  2 , Tindara Munafò  2 , Gerardo Sanpaolo  2 , Elisa Donno  2 , Maria Antonietta Clemente  2 , Michele Piombino  3 , Federico Parisi  4 , Guido Valle  5
Affiliations

Temozolomide and radiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone in high grade gliomas: a very long term comparative study and literature review

Salvatore Parisi et al. Biomed Res Int. 2015.

Abstract

Temozolomide (TMZ) is the first line drug in the care of high grade gliomas. The combined treatment of TMZ plus radiotherapy is more effective in the care of brain gliomas then radiotherapy alone. Aim of this report is a survival comparison, on a long time (>10 years) span, of glioma patients treated with radiotherapy alone and with radiotherapy + TMZ.

Materials and methods: In this report we retrospectively reviewed the outcome of 128 consecutive pts with diagnosis of high grade gliomas referred to our institutions from April 1994 to November 2001. The first 64 pts were treated with RT alone and the other 64 with a combination of RT and adjuvant or concomitant TMZ.

Results: Grade 3 (G3) haematological toxicity was recorded in 6 (9%) of 64 pts treated with RT and TMZ. No G4 haematological toxicity was observed. Age, histology, and administration of TMZ were statistically significant prognostic factors associated with 2 years overall survival (OS). PFS was for GBM 9 months, for AA 11.

Conclusions: The combination of RT and TMZ improves long term survival in glioma patients. Our results confirm the superiority of the combination on a long time basis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overall survival of our series.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall survival anaplastic astrocytoma versus anaplastic oligodendroglioma.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. DeAngelis L. M., Burger P. C., Green S. B., Cairncross J. G. Malignant glioma: who benefits from adjuvant chemotherapy? Annals of Neurology. 1998;44(4):691–695. doi: 10.1002/ana.410440418. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Galanis E., Buckner J. Chemotherapy for high-grade gliomas. British Journal of Cancer. 2000;82(8):1371–1380. doi: 10.1054/bjoc.1999.1075. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Del Rowe J., Scott C., Werner-Wasik M., et al. Single-arm, open-label phase II study of intravenously administered tirapazamine and radiation therapy for glioblastoma multiforme. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2000;18(6):1254–1259. - PubMed
    1. Fine H. A., Dear K. B. G., Loeffler J. S., Black P. M., Canellos G. P. Meta-analysis of radiation therapy with and without adjuvant chemotherapy for malignant gliomas in adults. Cancer. 1993;71(8):2585–2597. - PubMed
    1. Fisher B. J., Scott C., Macdonald D. R., Coughlin C., Curran W. J. Phase I study of topotecan plus cranial radiation for glioblastoma multiforme: results of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group trial 9507. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2001;19(4):1111–1117. - PubMed

Publication types