Anaplastic oligodendroglial cancers, which account for no more than ten percent of primary malignant brain tumors, do not traditionally have good prognoses. Standard treatment for many years has been surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy. Chemotherapy has never proven to be very effective.
According to an abstract presented by researchers from Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, patients with specific genetic deletions in chromosomes 1 and 19 could help doctors determine beforehand whether they might benefit from chemotherapy.
Patients with the 1p/19q co-deletion mutations proved to be especially responsive to chemotherapy: investigators saw a 44 percent reduced risk of death radiation followed by adjuvant chemotherapy, along with a gain of as many as 28 months in median overall survival.
The study involved 386 patients with newly-diagnosed, previously untreated anaplastic oligodendroglioma or oligoastrocytoma. They were randomized to receive radiation therapy only, or radiation followed by six cycles of PCV chemotherapy (procarbazine (Matulane), lomustine (Ceenu), and vincristine (Oncovin, Vincasar).
"The molecular analysis allowed us to find those patients that benefit more," said researchers at a press conference. "So this opens the venue to personalized medicine not based on the histology of the tumor, but looking at the molecular signature of those tumors."
Source: Medpage Today
The information provided on CancerTreatment.net is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional. This information is solely for informational purposes and does not constitute the practice of medicine. We encourage all visitors to see a licensed physician or nutritionist if they have any concerns regarding health issues related to diet, personal image and any other topics discussed on this site. Neither the owners or employees of CancerTreatment.net nor the author(s) of site content take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading this site. Always speak with your primary health care provider before engaging in any form of self treatment. Please see our Legal Statement for further information.
