Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0017636 (glioblastoma)
 18,345 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Twenty-five adults who harbored malignant gliomas received 72 courses of intraarterial 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) (100 mg/m2) and 67 courses of systemic vincristine (1.0 mg/m2) and procarbazine (100 mg/m2) as induction therapy (BVP) followed by 106 courses of systemic 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-(4-methylcyclohexyl)-1-nitrosourea (methyl-CCNU) (130 mg/m2), vincristine, and procarbazine as maintenance therapy (MVP). With a 6-week interval between each treatment, the median and range for the number of courses of BVP were 3 and 1 to 4 and those for MVP were 3 and 0 to 14, respectively. Fifteen patients (60%) responded to both BVP and MVP, and 10 (40%) did not. The overall median survival time was 12.7 months (range, 1.8 to 48.5+ months). Two of 3 patients who had recurrent gliomas responded and survived for 37+ to 45+ months. Seven of 10 who had nonirradiated glioblastomas responded and survived for 9 to 22 months. Four who had nonirradiated anaplastic astrocytomas all responded and survived for 38+ to 48.5+ months. Two who also received radiotherapy (1 glioblastoma and 1 primitive neuroectodermal tumor) benefited and survived for 16.9 and 28.5+ months. All who did not respond favorably died within 8 months. During the infusion of BCNU, complications included transient orbital and head pain, periorbital and scleral erythema in all patients, and a focal seizure in 1 (4%). During the 6-month induction periods, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia occurred in 1 (4%), deep vein thrombosis occurred in 9 (36%), pulmonary emboli occurred in 8 (32%), upper respiratory infections occurred in 6 (24%), pneumonia occurred in 9 (36%), and herpes zoster occurred in 1 (4%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Intraarterial 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) and systemic chemotherapy for malignant gliomas: a follow-up study. 631 73

Recently, the RTOG and ECOG concluded a joint randomized study on malignant gliomas that was in progress for the past five years. A total of 626 patients entered this protocol. Sixty-seven percent of the 535 evaluable patients have died and thus this represents a preliminary report of a major joint clinical trial. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy after neurosurgery of three new treatment options as compared with control treatment of radiotherapy alone. The four options were: (1) control radiation; 6000 rad/6-7 weeks to whole brain; (2) a higher radiation dose; Control dose plus a booster dose of 1000 rad/1-2 weeks to the tumor; (3) control radiation dose plus BCNU (80 mg/m2/day IV X 3 and repeat BCNU every 8 weeks); (4) Control radiation dose plus combination methyl-CCNU (125 mg/m2/day orally X 1 and repeat methyl-CCNU every 8 weeks), and DTIC (150 mg/m2/day IV X 5 and repeat DTIC every 4 weeks). All pertinent patient characteristics were studied and several important prognostic factors have been identified. Notably, age, histologic type (Astrocytoma with anaplastic foci, versus glioblastoma multiforme), initial performance status, time since first symptoms and presence or absence of seizure. At this time, it appeared that there was no treatment option which was significantly better than the control. The study identified that age was the most important prognostic factor. Patients who were younger than age 40 years had an 18-month survival of 64%, patients who were age 40-60 years had an 18-month survival of 20%, and patients who were older than age 60 had an 18-month survival of 8%. The study also demonstrated that a modified histologic classification of anaplastic astrocytoma versus glioblastoma provided better prognostic information than the astrocytoma grading system of Kernohan. Patients with anaplastic astrocytoma had a median survival of 27 months as compared to 8 months for patients with glioblastoma. In further evaluation of any beneficial effect of chemotherapy, it was identified that only among the 40-60-year-old groups, BCNU treated patients appeared to have significantly increased survival than patients in the control groups (P = 0.01, one-sided). Similarly, methyl-CCNU + DTIC was suggestively better than the control (P = 0.08, one-sided). The higher radiation dose, 7000 rad/8-9 weeks appeared to give no significantly better survival over the control dose option. Both BCNU and methyl-CCNU + DTIC produced some toxicity. The combination of methyl-CCNU + DTIC was more toxic than BCNU, producing severe or worse thrombocytopenia in 23% of the patients as compared to 6% on BCNU.
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PMID:Comparison of postoperative radiotherapy and combined postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the multidisciplinary management of malignant gliomas. A joint Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group study. 634 85