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A phase II study of topotecan in patients with anaplastic oligodendroglioma or anaplastic mixed oligoastrocytoma

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Abstract

To determine the efficacy and toxicity of a novel chemotherapeutic approach with topotecan, a camptothecin analog, for progressive or recurring anaplastic oligodendroglioma or mixed oligoastrocytoma.

Patients from seven centers with recurrent or progressive disease were treated with topotecan, 1.5 mg/m2 intravenously (i.v.), 30 min daily×5 days every 3 weeks. Efficacy and toxicity were assessed clinically and radiologically. The study was planned to accrue up to 30 evaluable patients if there was at least one response among the first 15 patients treated.

Sixteen eligible patients entered the study. No response was documented in 14 evaluable patients. Eleven patients had stable disease of a median of 3.8 months and three had progressive disease. Sixteen patients were evaluable for toxicity. The most significant toxic effect was myelosuppression. Grade 3 or 4 granulocytopenia was experienced by 15 of 16 patients and led to dose reduction in nearly half of the cycles delivered. Other adverse effects were fatigue, nausea, stomatitis, alopecia, and vomiting.

Topotecan, delivered in the daily×5 regimen, is relatively well tolerated. We could not demonstrate significant activity among the population studied to justify completing accrual to 30 patients. Topotecan did not demonstrate, with this small sample size, efficacy as a salvage chemotherapy monotherapy after exposure to procarbazine, CCNU and vincristine. Further trials with different agents in this indication are certainly warranted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CHUM-Hôpital Notre-Dame, Department of Hematology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Karl Bélanger, Julie Bergeron & Denis Soulières

  2. London Regional Cancer Centre, London, Ontario, Canada

    David MacDonald & Gregory Cairncross

  3. Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Stan Gertler

  4. Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Peter Forsyth

  5. Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Susan Burdette-Radoux

  6. Department of Pathology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

    Samuel Ludwin

  7. NCIC Clinical Trials Group, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Nancy Wainman (Study coordinator) & Elizabeth Eisenhauer

Authors
  1. Karl Bélanger
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  2. David MacDonald
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  3. Gregory Cairncross
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  4. Stan Gertler
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  5. Peter Forsyth
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  6. Susan Burdette-Radoux
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  7. Julie Bergeron
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  8. Denis Soulières
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  9. Samuel Ludwin
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  10. Nancy Wainman
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  11. Elizabeth Eisenhauer
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Correspondence to Karl Bélanger.

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Bélanger, K., MacDonald, D., Cairncross, G. et al. A phase II study of topotecan in patients with anaplastic oligodendroglioma or anaplastic mixed oligoastrocytoma. Invest New Drugs 21, 473–480 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026211620793

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