A phase II study of topotecan in patients with anaplastic oligodendroglioma or anaplastic mixed oligoastrocytoma

• Published in: Investigational new drugs Vol. 21; no. 4; pp. 473 - 480
• Main Authors: BELANGER, Karl, MACDONALD, David, EISENHAUER, Elizabeth, CAIRNCROSS, Gregory, GERTLER, Stan, FORSYTH, Peter, BURDETTE-RADOUX, Susan, BERGERON, Julie, SOULIERES, Denis, LUDWIN, Samuel, WAINMAN, Nancy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Kluwer 01.11.2003; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Antineoplastic agents; Astrocytoma - blood; Astrocytoma - drug therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Brain cancer; Cancer therapies; Chemotherapy; Clinical trials; Collaboration; Fatigue - blood; Fatigue - chemically induced; Granulocytes; Humans; Infusions, Intravenous; Lung cancer; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical prognosis; Medical sciences; Neutropenia; Oligodendroglioma - blood; Oligodendroglioma - drug therapy; Oncology; Patients; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Radiation therapy; Response rates; Skin cancer; Surgery; Tomography; Topotecan - administration & dosage; Topotecan - adverse effects; Toxicity; Tumors; Antineoplastic agent; Human; Nervous system diseases; Intravenous administration; Enzyme; DNA topoisomerase; Enzyme inhibitor; Topotecan; Malignant tumor; Oligodendroglioma; Malignant glioma; phase II; Anaplastic carcinoma; Chemotherapy; Isomerases; Treatment; Malignant astrocytoma; Central nervous system disease; Phase II trial; Antiviral; Mixed carcinoma
• ISSN: 0167-6997; 1573-0646
• DOI: 10.1023/A:1026211620793

To determine the efficacy and toxicity of a novel chemotherapeutic approach with topotecan, a camptothecin analog, for progressive or recurring anaplastic oligodendroglioma or mixed oligoastrocytoma.Patients from seven centers with recurrent or progressive disease were treated with topotecan, 1.5 mg/m(2) intravenously (i.v.), 30 min dailyx5 days every 3 weeks. Efficacy and toxicity were assessed clinically and radiologically. The study was planned to accrue up to 30 evaluable patients if there was at least one response among the first 15 patients treated. Sixteen eligible patients entered the study. No response was documented in 14 evaluable patients. Eleven patients had stable disease of a median of 3.8 months and three had progressive disease. Sixteen patients were evaluable for toxicity. The most significant toxic effect was myelosuppression. Grade 3 or 4 granulocytopenia was experienced by 15 of 16 patients and led to dose reduction in nearly half of the cycles delivered. Other adverse effects were fatigue, nausea, stomatitis, alopecia, and vomiting.Topotecan, delivered in the dailyx5 regimen, is relatively well tolerated. We could not demonstrate significant activity among the population studied to justify completing accrual to 30 patients. Topotecan did not demonstrate, with this small sample size, efficacy as a salvage chemotherapy monotherapy after exposure to procarbazine, CCNU and vincristine. Further trials with different agents in this indication are certainly warranted.