78 research outputs found
MGMT Promoter Methylation Cutoff with Safety Margin for Selecting Glioblastoma Patients into Trials Omitting Temozolomide. A Pooled Analysis of Four Clinical Trials
PURPOSE
The methylation status of the O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) gene promoter is predictive for benefit from temozolomide in glioblastoma. A clinically optimized cutoff was sought allowing patient selection for therapy without temozolomide, while avoiding to withhold it from patients who may potentially benefit.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Quantitative MGMT methylation-specific PCR data were obtained for newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients screened or treated with standard radiotherapy and temozolomide in four randomized trials. The pooled dataset was randomly split into a training and test dataset. The unsupervised cutoff was obtained at a 50% probability to be (un)methylated. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis identified an optimal cutoff supervised by overall survival (OS).
RESULTS
For 4041 patients valid MGMT results were obtained, whereof 1725 were randomized. The unsupervised cutoff in the training dataset was 1.27 (log2[1000x(MGMT+1)/ACTB]), separating unmethylated and methylated patients. The optimal supervised cutoff for unmethylated patients was -0.28 (AUC=0.61), classifying "truly unmethylated" (≤-0.28) and "grey zone" patients (>-0.28, ≤1.27), the latter comprising ~10% of cases. In contrast, for MGMT methylated patients (>1.27) more methylation was not related to better outcome. Both methylated and grey zone patients performed significantly better for OS than truly unmethylated patients (HR=0.35, 95% CI: 0.27-0.45, p<0.0001; HR=0.58, 95% CI: 0.43-0.78, p<0.001), validated in the test dataset. The MGMT assay was highly reproducible upon retesting of 218 paired samples (R2=0.94).
CONCLUSIONS
Low MGMT methylation (grey zone) may confer some sensitivity to temozolomide treatment, hence the lower safety margin should be considered for selecting unmethylated glioblastoma patients into trials omitting temozolomide
A phase I dose-escalation study of the immunocytokine EMD 521873 (Selectikine) in patients with advanced solid tumours
n/
ATNT-10DOES VALPROIC ACID IMPROVE SURVIVAL IN GLIOBLASTOMA? A META-ANALYSIS OF RANDOMIZED TRIALS IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED GLIOBLASTOMA
European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) open label phase II study on glufosfamide administered as a 60-minute infusion every 3 weeks in recurrent glioblastoma multiforme
BACKGROUND: Glufosfamide is a new alkylating agent in which the active
metabolite of isophosphoramide mustard is covalently linked to
beta-D-glucose to target the glucose transporter system and increase
intracellular uptake in tumor cells. We investigated this drug in a
multicenter prospective phase II trial in recurrent glioblastoma
multiforme (GBM). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eligible patients had recurrent
GBM following surgery, radiotherapy and no more than one prior line of
chemotherapy. Patients were treated with glufosfamide 5000 mg/m(2)
administered as a 1-h intravenous infusion. Treatment success was defined
as patients with either an objective response according to Macdonald's
criteria or 6 months progression-free survival. Toxicity was assessed with
the Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) version 2.0. RESULTS: Thirty-one
eligible patients were included. Toxicity was modest, the main clinically
relevant toxicities being leukopenia (CTC grade >3 in five patients) and
hepatotoxicity (in three patients). No responses were observed; one
patient (3%; 95% confidence interval 0 to 17%) was free from progression
at 6 months. Pharmacokinetic analysis showed a 15% decrease in area under
the curve and glufosfamide clearance in patients treated with
enzyme-inducing antiepileptic drugs, but no effect of these drugs on
maximum concentration and plasma half-life. CONCLUSION: Glufosfamide did
not show significant clinical antitumor activity in patients with
recurrent GBM
MGMT methylation analysis of glioblastoma on the Infinium methylation BeadChip identifies two distinct CpG regions associated with gene silencing and outcome, yielding a prediction model for comparisons across datasets, tumor grades, and CIMP-status
The methylation status of the O6-methylguanine- DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) gene is an important predictive biomarker for benefit from alkylating agent therapy in glioblastoma. Recent studies in anaplastic glioma suggest a prognostic value for MGMT methylation. Investigation of pathogenetic and epigenetic features of this intriguingly distinct behavior requires accurate MGMT classification to assess high throughput molecular databases. Promoter methylation-mediated gene silencing is strongly dependent on the location of the methylated CpGs,
ATCT-08THE IMPACT OF EXTENDED ADJUVANT TEMOZOLOMIDE IN NEWLY-DIAGNOSED GLIOBLASTOMA: A SECONDARY ANALYSIS OF EORTC AND NRG ONCOLOGY/RTOG
Impact of therapy on quality of life, neurocognitive function and their correlates in glioblastoma multiforme: a review
The maintenance of quality of life (QoL) in patients with high-grade glioma is an important endpoint during treatment, particularly in those with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) given its dismal prognosis despite limited advances in standard therapy. It has proven difficult to identify new therapies that extend survival in patients with recurrent GBM, so one of the primary aims of new therapies is to reduce morbidity, restore or preserve neurologic functions, and the capacity to perform daily activities. Apart from temozolomide, cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents do not appear to significantly impact response or survival, but produce toxicity that is likely to negatively impact QoL. New biological agents, such as bevacizumab, can induce a clinically meaningful proportion of durable responses among patients with recurrent GBM with an acceptable safety profile. Emerging evidence suggests that bevacizumab produces an improvement or preservation of neurocognitive function in GBM patients, suggestive of QoL improvement, in most poor-prognosis patients who would otherwise be expected to show a sudden and rapid deterioration in QoL
O ensino das ciências experimentais no liceu, em Portugal, na I República (1910-1926)
O ensino das ciências experimentais (ECE) em Portugal ficou, como pretendemos demonstrar, fortemente marcado pela instauração da República, que comemorou no ano transacto o seu centenário. A República de 1910 pretendeu reformar toda a mentalidade portuguesa, através do pilar base – a educação – pela qual seria capaz de sacudir a nossa maneira de ser, lançando desta forma o país para um progresso de nível europeu. O estudo a que nos propomos, uma investigação documental no domínio da História da Ciência1, visa aprofundar os conhecimentos existentes sobre esta época e perceber o impacto da reforma do ECE, principalmente nos Liceus, caracterizando as principais figuras, políticas e docentes responsáveis pela sua conceptualização e aplicação. Através desta investigação procuraremos lançar as primeiras bases para descobrir as origens deste pensamento, querendo ainda comparar os fundamentos psicopedagógicos, epistemológicos e sociológicos da época com as principais ideias actualmente presentes no ensino da Ciência. Com este trabalho pretendemos, num primeiro momento, apresentar e divulgar o desenho da investigação e os seus objectivos, na procura de estabelecer parcerias e receber contributos da comunidade académica interessada por esta problemática
Methylome analyses of three glioblastoma cohorts reveal chemotherapy sensitivity markers within DDR genes
Background: Gliomas evade current therapies through primary and acquired resistance and the effect of temozolomide is mainly restricted to methylguanin-O6-methyltransferase promoter (MGMT) promoter hypermethylated tumors. Further resistance
markers are largely unknown and would help for better stratification.
Methods: Clinical data and methylation profiles from the NOA-08 (104, elderly
glioblastoma) and the EORTC 26101 (297, glioblastoma) studies and 398 patients
with glioblastoma from the Heidelberg Neuro-Oncology center have been analyzed
focused on the predictive effect of DNA damage response (DDR) gene methylation.
Candidate genes were validated in vitro.
Results: Twenty-eight glioblastoma 5'-cytosine-phosphat-guanine-3' (CpGs) from
17 DDR genes negatively correlated with expression and were used together with
telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutations in further analysis.
CpG methylation of DDR genes shows highest association with the mesenchymal
(MES) and receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) II glioblastoma subgroup. MES tumors
have lower tumor purity compared to RTK I and II subgroup tumors. CpG hypomethylation of DDR genes TP73 and PRPF19 correlated with worse patient survival
in particular in MGMT promoter unmethylated tumors. TERT promoter mutation is
most frequent in RTK I and II subtypes and associated with worse survival. Primary
glioma cells show methylation patterns that resemble RTK I and II glioblastoma and
long term established glioma cell lines do not match with glioblastoma subtypes.
Silencing of selected resi
A Pilot Study of IL-2Rα Blockade during Lymphopenia Depletes Regulatory T-cells and Correlates with Enhanced Immunity in Patients with Glioblastoma
Preclinical studies in mice have demonstrated that the prophylactic depletion of immunosuppressive regulatory T-cells (T(Regs)) through targeting the high affinity interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor (IL-2Rα/CD25) can enhance anti-tumor immunotherapy. However, therapeutic approaches are complicated by the inadvertent inhibition of IL-2Rα expressing anti-tumor effector T-cells.To determine if changes in the cytokine milieu during lymphopenia may engender differential signaling requirements that would enable unarmed anti-IL-2Rα monoclonal antibody (MAbs) to selectively deplete T(Regs) while permitting vaccine-stimulated immune responses.A randomized placebo-controlled pilot study was undertaken to examine the ability of the anti-IL-2Rα MAb daclizumab, given at the time of epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) targeted peptide vaccination, to safely and selectively deplete T(Regs) in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) treated with lymphodepleting temozolomide (TMZ).Daclizumab treatment (n = 3) was well-tolerated with no symptoms of autoimmune toxicity and resulted in a significant reduction in the frequency of circulating CD4+Foxp3+ TRegs in comparison to saline controls (n = 3)( p = 0.0464). A significant (p<0.0001) inverse correlation between the frequency of TRegs and the level of EGFRvIII specific humoral responses suggests the depletion of TRegs may be linked to increased vaccine-stimulated humoral immunity. These data suggest this approach deserves further study.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00626015
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