Oncology Medical News about Medulloblastoma

Become a Member Today!
Register

Most Viewed Abstracts

1. Report Shows Shift in Starting Salaries for Physicians

2. Recommendations on the use of 18F-FDG PET in oncology

3. Taxane-based combinations as adjuvant chemotherapy of early breast cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized trials

4. Gene expression signatures, clinicopathological features, and individualized therapy in breast cancer

5. Sentinel node biopsy is important in mastectomy for ductal carcinoma in situ

Your Article Summary

See Latest Articles

(Click the title below to leave the MDLinx Network and go to the Journal's Website)

Medulloblastoma in childhood: revisiting intrathecal therapy in infants and children
Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, 10/29/09

Conroy S et al. – The pre–determined criteria were not applicable, in their entirety, in the majority of drugs, due to lack of information in the academic domain, emphasising the importance of a more open approach for sharing basic drug information. The prioritised list of 12 candidate drugs for clinical trial and 15 for pre–clinical investigation justify that a concerted research effort in this area of practice is made.

Exclusive Author Commentary
David Walker, 10/29/09

This work was stimulated by the observation of the considerable brain and skeletal injury,currently suffered by young children treated by cranio spinal radiotherapy for medulloblastoma. The efficacy of systemic chemotherapy is limited by systemic toxicity and drug access to the central nervous system. Intrathecal chemotherapy has been used successfully in medulloblastoma and in ALL producing the excellent control of CNS disease. We decided to review established chemotherapy agents for efficacy against medulloblastoma and suitability for intrathecal administration. The systematic literature review identified a major gap in the availability of information about pharmacological characteristics of established drugs whilst also testing criteria for drug selection and then applying these where possible, and where not, using whatever information that was avaialble to select and rank drugs for future testing in this clinical condition. This review will stimulate debate regarding drug selection and promote a renewed interest in the use of this route of drug administration. It would be a remarkable response if Pharma and Academia agreed to share basic pharmacological information about their new and old cancer drugs in a systematic and open fashion.

<< Previous
A phase I study of imexon plus gemcitabine as first-line therapy...

Next >>
A phase I study to determine the safety, tolerability and maximum...