Chemotherapy and immunotherapy in adult malignant gliomas

Abstract

This review summarizes papers published during 1991 and 1992. The poor results obtained in the postneurosurgical treatment of gliomas led researchers to pursue attempts to try to overcome glioma cell resistance. The intra-arterial route was explored in several phase II studies with new drugs and even immunoconjugates; rates of response between 30% to 60% were obtained. New drugs (fotemustine, eflornithine, and estramustine) or combined protocols planned to circumvent chemoresistance were tested and showed some efficiency with moderate toxicity, enlarging the number of drugs available against malignant gliomas. On the contrary, two retrospective analyses warned about the risk of reduction of median time to survival due to adjuvant chemotherapy in anaplastic astrocytomas; this finding, if confirmed, would suggest to defer chemotherapy at the time of recurrence in this type of glial tumor. Immunobiologic therapies as immunomodifiers, immunoconjugates, or cytotoxic lymphocyte-activated killer cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were tested and allowed some responses to be obtained. In young children, chemotherapy regimens were found to be efficient in malignant plexus choroid carcinomas and low-grade gliomas, allowing radiation therapy to be deferred. Many studies were methodologically unsatisfactory because of uncertain pathology grouping, noncompliance to initial protocols, or too small populations of patients.