Abstract
In a comparative study of nimustine hydrochloride (ACNU)/etoposide (VP16) combination chemotherapy and interferon/ACNU therapy for malignant gliomas, we have reported effectiveness of ACNU/VP16 therapy for patients survival was statistically significant. The aim of this report is to determine whether ACNU/VP16 therapy is appropriate adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with malignant glioma in consideration of response rate, recurrence rate, side effect, and hospital stay for this chemotherapy. Twenty-three patients with malignant glioma ranging in age from 22 to 80 years old were included. All patients underwent surgical resection followed by irradiation in combination with chemotherapy. They received ACNU(80mg/m^2 i.v.) on Day 1 and VP16 (80mg/m^2 i.v.) on Day 2 and 3 of each 6-week cycle. Three out of 18 patients in which immediate postoperative neuroimagings showed some degree of residual tumor responded to ACNU/VP16 therapy. All patients but one underwent gross total resection showed no recurrence in follow-up period. Therefore, overall response rate was estimated to be 34.8%. Overall recurrence rate was 65.2%. The mean time elapsed to recurrence was 7.6 months, but there was no significant difference in recurrence rate between the patients with glioblastoma and anaplastic astrocytoma. Significant myelosuppression was encountered in 5 patients (21.8%) leading to skip or to wait the administration of drugs. Overall occurrence of side effects was found in 14 patients (60.9%). Only 2 patients were ceased from this adjuvant chemotherapy because of patients' request. An average hospital stay for one course of this chemotherapy was 5.8 days. These results suggested that ACNU/VP16 combination chemotherapy was an effective adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with malignant gliomas.
