Testing a less toxic treatment for a type of glioma brain cancer
Background
Oligodendroglioma is a type of glioma brain tumour occurring mainly in adults, but also affecting children. The standard treatment for oligodendroglioma is radiation followed by a combination of chemotherapy drugs, procarbazine, lomustine, and intravenous vincristine (also known as PCV therapy). In clinical practice, PCV is a complex regimen and is considered more toxic than temozolomide. As a result, some clinicians believe that PCV may be substituted by the less toxic drug, temozolomide, to treat oligodendroglioma. However, there is not currently enough evidence to justify this substitution and this is the focus of Dr Hovey’s work.
The research
This study will compare current standard PCV treatment with oral temozolomide chemotherapy with radiation.
The impact
The team predict that temozolomide treatment will have less side effects and will also be as effective, if not even more effective, than PCV treatment.