Background: Malignant gliomas still present a medical challenge, despite decades of continuous extensive research with optimization of surgical techniques, radiotherapy and systemic treatments.
Patients and methods: From 1999 to 2004, 104 patients with WHO grade III and IVgliomas underwent surgery and received concomitant radiotherapy combined with concomitant oral temozolomide. Patients with progressive disease received sequential 5-day cycles of temozolomide at 28-day intervals.
Results: The median overall survival was 19.7 and 15.0 months for patients with WHO grade III versus IV gliomas, respectively. Patient compliance was good and toxicity moderate. The overall survival was as long as 18.0 months in a subgroup of subjects with glioblastoma, performance status >60% and complete radiochemotherapy.
Conclusion: Although our patients had more negative characteristics (age, performance, biopsy only), the results confirmed those from recently published optimistic phase III trial data and indeed surpassed them in some cases.