Glioblastoma

Zolinza for maintenance in glioblastoma

With the advent of biologic therapies, many new avenues to approach recalcitrant and difficult diseases have emerged. Once such cancer is the brain cancer glioblastoma(GBM). It is tempting to use Zolinza(vorinostate) for maintenance after attaining a remission of glioblastoma, because this is a disease that almost always comes back. Unfortunately, there is as of yet no literature supporting the use of Zolnza for maintenance for gliolastoma. A recent

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Chemo with vincristine, carboplatin and Temodar

Low grade astrocytoma occurrs in adults and children but is more commonly a pediatric disease. Radiotherapy is relatively contraindicated in children because it stunts their intellectual growth. Chemotherapy may be used in young children to avoid or to delay radiotherapy because of its potential neurologic sequelae. To date, the most active chemotherapy regimen for these tumors is carboplatin and vincristine. These agents show objective response

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Thalidomide for glioblastoma

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

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How to dose Temodar after Glioblastoma surgery

Chemoradiation after resection is well established for glioblastoma. Three randomized studies,have all showed a benefit for it. TEMODAR® (temozolomide) is FDA indicated for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme concomitantly with radiotherapy and then as maintenance treatment.  One way to dose Temodar is with the Stupp protocol: Temodar 75 mg/m2 for 42 days with radiation. This is the dose and schedule in

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Temodar for Glioblastoma: Making a difference

Glioblastoma is a disease for which there were few options available until recently. The past several years brought several new potentially promising. Temozolomide (brand names Temodar and Temodal) is an oral alkylating drug. It is FDA indicated is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme concomitantly with radiotherapy and then as maintenance treatment. TEMODAR is indicated for the treatment of adult

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Afinitor for glioblastoma

There is evidence that the MTOR pathway plays an important role in renal cell cancer. It is also effective in neuroendocrine cancer. AFINITOR®(everolimus) is indicated for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and progressive neuroendocrine tumors of pancreatic origin (PNET) in patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic disease. The safety and effectiveness of AFINITOR® in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma has not been

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Votrient for Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma is a common brain cancer. It is currently approved for renal cell carcinoma with some activity against glioblastoma. Votrient(pazopanib) is a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor with some activity against brain cancers. It also exhibits activ­ity against melanoma and breast, prostate, colon, and lung can­cers, although it has not yet been approved for use in those can­cers. In this it is an advance over other currently available

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