Brain Tumors Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Brain Tumors, including details on symptoms, benign and malignant tumors, gliomas, screening, treatment. | ||||||||
|
AdvHSV-tk gene therapy with intravenous ganciclovir improves survival in human malignant glioma: a randomised, controlled study.Immonen A, Vapalahti M, Tyynelä K, Hurskainen H, Sandmair A, Vanninen R, Langford G, Murray N, Ylä-Herttuala S Department of Neurosurgery, University of Kuopio, A.I. Virtanen Institute, Finland. Malignant glioma is a devastating brain tumor with no effective treatment. This randomised, controlled study involved 36 patients with operable primary or recurrent malignant glioma. Seventeen patients were randomized to receive AdvHSV-tk gene therapy (3 x 10(10) pfu) by local injection into the wound bed after tumor resection, followed by intravenous ganciclovir (GCV), 5 mg/kg twice daily for 14 days. The control group of 19 patients received standard care consisting of radical excision followed by radiotherapy in those patients with primary tumors. The primary end-point was survival as defined by death or surgery for recurrence. Secondary end-points were all-cause mortality and tumour progression as determined by MRI. Overall safety and quality of life were also assessed. Findings were also compared with historical controls (n = 36) from the same unit over 2 years preceding the study. AdvHSV-tk treatment produced a clinically and statistically significant increase in mean survival from 39.0 +/- 19.7 (SD) to 70.6 +/- 52.9 weeks (P = 0.0095, log-rank regression vs. randomized controls). The median survival time increased from 37.7 to 62.4 weeks. Six patients had increased anti-adenovirus antibody titers, without adverse effects. The treatment was well tolerated. It is concluded that AdvHSV-tk gene therapy with GCV is a potential new treatment for operable primary or recurrent high-grade glioma. Published 28 October 2004 in Mol Ther, 10(5): 967-72.
© 2004-2010 Brain Tumors Research Today. All Rights Reserved. |
| ||||||
