On Feb 04, 2012 12:13 PM karynk wrote:
Yes - this study does give us hope.
The one thing I really do not understand, is why the studies for Oligos (and mixed tumors) almost always use PCV chemo, but yet almost everyone (including my husband) that I have read about thru this site has been put on Temodar. I know, from everything that I have read over the years, that PCV is a harsh treatment with diet restrictions.
Karyn
Concerning PCV vs Temodar for Oligo's, there is some indication that PCV may provide a longer progression free time, which has to be balanced by consideration of higher toxicity.
From this multi-institutional publication in 2011:
Title: "International retrospective study of over 1000 adults with anaplastic oligodendroglial tumors"
"Subject to the limitations of study design, our data suggest that initial treatment with chemotherapy alone may be a reasonable option for patients with 1p19q codeleted tumors, and PCV appears to offer longer disease control than temozolomide but with greater known toxicity and without a clear prolongation of survival."
"TMZ has largely replaced PCV in the treatment of gliomas. Surprisingly, our data demonstrated that PCV alone afforded better disease control than TMZ alone in 1p19q codeleted cases, with median time-to-progression longer by more than 4 years, a medically and statistically significant difference despite the small sample size for each group. Recent results also suggest that responses of low grade oligodendrogliomas to PCV are more durable than with TMZ,"
The study report can be found here:
http://neurooncology.ucla.edu/pub/06132011.pdf