Survival Rates of Glioma Patients Improved Using Radiation and Chemotherapy

The results of a phase III trial to find an improved treatment for grade 2 glioma patients show that patients receiving radiation therapy together with a chemotherapy regimen experienced longer progression-free survival, and longer and overall survival than patients receiving only radiation therapy.

The results of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9802 clinical trial were published in the April 7, 2016, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The trial involved 251 patients suffering from low-grade glioma, and tool place between October 1998 and June 2002.

Preliminary results of the trail show that at a median patient follow-up of 5.9 years, radiation therapy together with the procarbazine, lomustine and vincristine (PCV) chemotherapy regimen, resulted in a statistically significant prolongation of median progression-free survival. The initial results did not show an improved overall survival rate, but this was demonstrated in an additional follow-up.

While only 5% to 10% of all brain tumors are Grade 2 gliomas, they are still responsible for progressive neurologic symptoms, and premature mortality in nearly all afflicted patients.

Jan Buckner, MD, lead author of the study, Department of Oncology, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (Rochester, MN, USA), said, “Our results indicate that initial radiation therapy followed by PCV is necessary to achieve longer survival in patients with grade 2 glioma and that salvage therapy at relapse after radiation therapy alone is less effective. It has also been hypothesized that other genetic alterations may be responsible for a small subset of patients whose glial brain tumors are chemotherapy-resistant. However, radiation therapy plus PCV appears to represent the most effective treatment identified to date for the majority of patients with grade 2 glioma.”

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