Cancer Treatment Today

Glioblastoma Multiforme is a difficult to treat disease but also a disease in which significant progress has been achieved. One drug that has been extensivly studied is thalidomide.  An early small study showed   a 5%  partial response and 42%  stable disease. The median survival was 31 weeks and the 1-year survival was 35%. Patients who had a partial response or stable disease appeared to have benefitted.

It appears that thalidomide has some activity as a single agent and that it can be increased by combining it with toher drugs. One combination that has demonstrated activity is thalidomide and temozolamide and combining thalidomide and irinotecan is also promising. A number of new drugs is in trials with thalidomide.

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