(Ivanhoe Newswire) - Combing radiation seeds and chemotherapy wafers, as opposed to receiving only one of the therapies, lengthened the life of participants in a study on treating a particularly deadly form of brain cancer.

The average survival time of people suffering from recurrent glioblastoma multiform (GBM) is approximately 26 weeks when people receive only one of the treatments. When both treatments were given, the survival median was 69 weeks and nearly a quarter of the study’s participants in the study survived for 2 years.

Specialists at the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cincinnati and University Hospital led the study. The early phase trial involved 34 patients. Each one received the same treatments. There was no control group. The purpose was to assess the safety and effectiveness of combining the 2 highly localized treatments.
 

GBM is a very aggressive, highly malignant tumor with unclear boundaries. It’s difficult to remove it completely and it re-grows in a majority of patients. The usual treatment is either radiation seeds or chemotherapy wafers. This study was the first to explore what happens when both treatments are combined.

“Combining radiation seeds and chemotherapy wafers was a logical next step,” said investigator Ronald Warnick, MD, chairman of the Mayfield clinic and professor of neurosurgery at UC. “The combination of seeds and wafers appears to provide longer survival compared with studies of seeds and wafers alone. The disease progression also seems to be further delayed.”

The downside of the combined treatment was brain tissue death in 25% of patients which was higher than in patients who undergo only one of the treatments. However, the tissue death was successfully treated with surgery or hyperbaric oxygen therapy and did not affect survival.

Warnick warns that the effectiveness of the combination therapy is not definitive because of the absence of the control group. Future studies will involve trying the combination treatment on patients newly diagnosed.

SOURCE: Journal of Neurosurgery Feb. 2008