A case of relapsing glioblastoma multiforme responding to vinorelbine.
Childhood malignant gliomas are rare and their clinical behavior is almost as aggressive as in adults: they resist treatment, progress rapidly and often spread. Therapeutic strategies at relapse deserve an experimental approach, since none of the conventional-dose treatments have demonstrated a clear superiority over the others and no randomized trials have proved that high-dose chemotherapy is better than conventional treatment. Vinorelbine is a semi-synthetic vinca alkaloid with an in vitro and in vivo experimentally proven broad spectrum of activity, including against malignant brain glioma. We report our experience with a 19-year-old girl with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) of the deep temporal region recurring 6 months after completing an intensive treatment that included preradiation chemotherapy (chemotherapy as a preradiation "sandwich" phase) with a myeloablative course of thiotepa, tumor bed radiotherapy and postradiation maintenance chemotherapy. The GBM proved fully responsive to intravenous vinorelbine, with a subsequent progression-free interval lasting more than 24 months. This case report suggests that vinorelbine is effective against high-grade pediatric glioma and, since this evidence has only one precedent in the literature (and given the generally poor prognosis for this tumor), even this single success seems worth reporting.
Biassoni
V
V
Department of Pediatric, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, 20133, Milan, Italy. acinorev26@virgilio.it
Casanova
M
M
Spreafico
F
F
Gandola
L
L
Massimino
M
M