title: Induction treatment for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, experience of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The biology of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma remains poorly understood and the dismal prognosis has not changed despite various attempts to add chemotherapy to standard radiation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective chart review was carried out of patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma treated at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1998 to 2010, and the data analyzed comparing drug effects aiming to generate hypotheses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 64 patients had diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma as confirmed by radiology review; 28 were male, and age at diagnosis ranged from 1.5 to 16.5 years. All patients received radiation as initial treatment, and 44 had additional treatment during the radiation, with a total of 15 different drug combinations obtained from 15 different individual drugs. The median overall survival after diagnosis was 0.79 years (SD 0.123). Patients treated with the anti-inflammatory agent rofecoxib had inferior survival (p=0.00002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on these data, we hypothesize that inflammatory/reactive processes in the tumor might play a beneficial role during radiation and suggest that this be tested in animal models.
authors: Department of Pediatrics, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. jwolff@tuftsmedicalcenter.org
authors: Johannes E
authors: JE
authors: Wolff
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Rytting
authors: Tribhawa
authors: T
authors: Vats
authors: Joann
authors: J
authors: Ater
authors: Anita
authors: A
authors: Mahajan
authors: Shiao
authors: S
authors: Woo
authors: Leena
authors: L
authors: Ketonen
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Kuttesch
authors: Dianne
authors: D
authors: Liu
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Thall
authors: Eric L
authors: EL
authors: Chang
mesh_terms: D020295:Brain Stem Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011149:Pons / Q000473:pathology*; D012074:Remission Induction; D012189:Retrospective Studies