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The efficacy of temozolomide for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme
European Journal of Neurology, 07/03/2012
Clinical Article
Chen C et al. – Temozolomide (TMZ) is effective for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), and its efficacy may be increased with metronomic schedule and high average daily dose (>100 mg/m2).
Methods- Medline, EMBASE database and the Cochrane Library were searched for relevant studies.
- Eligible studies were clinical trials of recurrent GBMs assigned to TMZ with data on efficacy including tumor response, progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS) available.
- The overall efficacy was calculated using a random-effects or fixed-effects model, depending on the heterogeneity of the included trials.
- A total of 15 phase II clinical trials including 902 recurrent GBMs were analyzed.
- The overall clinical benefit rate was 50.5% (95% CI: 44.3-56.7%) with significant difference between metronomic and standard schedules of TMZ (61.4% vs. 46.3%, P=0.037).
- The overall 6-month PFS (PFS-6) rate was found to be 27.8% (95% CI: 22.7-33.5%) with significant difference between metronomic and standard schedules (33.1% vs. 20.1%, P<0.001).
- In addition, significant difference in PFS-6 was detected between high (average daily dose >100 mg/m2) and low (average daily dose ≤100 mg/m2) dose metronomic schedules (RR=1.57, 95% CI: 1.17-2.09, P=0.002).
- The overall 6-month OS (OS-6) and 12-month OS (OS-12) rates were 65.0% (95% CI: 57.4-71.9%) and 36.4% (95% CI: 26.9-47.1%) separately.
- There was no significant difference in OS-6 between metronomic and standard schedules (P=0.266); however, a trend was noted favoring the metronomic schedule for OS-12 (P=0.089).
