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Brain Cancer Combination Extends Progression Free Survival, Not Overall Survival
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Treatment with bevacizumab and lomustine not found to offer a survival advantage.
A combination therapy was ultimately found to not confer a survival advantage in the treatment of brain cancer during a recent study.
The results of a trial presented at the 20th Annual Scientific Meeting and Education Day of the Society for Neuro-Oncology found the combination of bevacizumab and lomustine offers prolonged progression-free survival without extending overall survival in the treatment of progressive glioblastoma.
"The future challenge is to identify those patients deriving benefit from that treatment,” said study coordinator Dr. Wolfgang Wick.
As the most frequently occurring brain tumor in adults, glioblastoma has an incidence rate of approximately 5 cases per 100,000 people. Glioblastomas comprise between 60 to 70% of all gliomas, with no curative treatments available.
"Standard first line treatment consists of surgical resection followed by radiation and concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide therapy. For recurrence, there are treatment options, but we still have no standard treatment," Dr. Wick said. "Phase 2 data from the BELOB trial had indicated that the combination of bevacizumab and lomustine might produce an overall survival benefit compared with either monotherapy for patients with first progression of a glioblastoma."
