Long-term survival after salvage pemetrexed for refractory primary T-cell lymphoma of the CNS.

Primary T-cell CNS lymphoma is a rare and aggressive malignancy. High-dose methotrexate (MTX) based chemotherapy regimens are used as standard first-line treatment, followed by consolidative strategies to improve the duration of response. Although MTX-based therapy has been shown to be efficacious, treatment options for MTX-refractory disease are not well-defined.

Very long-term survival of an older glioblastoma patient after treatment with cilengitide: a case report.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant brain tumor. Less than 1% of patients survive longer than 10 years. A 77-year-old woman was diagnosed with MGMT-methylated GBM in 2009.

A Phase I Study of Autologous Dendritic Cell Vaccine Pulsed with Allogeneic Stem-like Cell Line Lysate in Patients with Newly Diagnosed or Recurrent Glioblastoma.

Purpose: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a heterogeneous malignancy with multiple subpopulations of cancer cells present within any tumor. We present the results of a phase I clinical trial using an autologous dendritic cell (DC) vaccine pulsed with lysate derived from a GBM stem-like cell line.

Patients And Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed and recurrent GBM were enrolled as separate cohorts.

Corrigendum: Exploring the Feasibility and Effects of a Ketogenic Diet in Patients With CNS Malignancies: A Retrospective Case Series.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.

Exploring the Feasibility and Effects of a Ketogenic Diet in Patients With CNS Malignancies: A Retrospective Case Series.

Recently, the ketogenic diet has been proposed as an adjunct treatment for a range of medical conditions including weight loss, diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Because malignant CNS tumors are highly dependent on glucose, the use of a ketogenic diet as an adjunct therapy is currently being explored. This case series summarizes our experience implementing a ketogenic diet for patients with CNS malignancies.

A phase I trial of surgical resection with Gliadel Wafer placement followed by vaccination with dendritic cells pulsed with tumor lysate for patients with malignant glioma.

High grade gliomas are associated with poor prognosis and high mortality. Conventional treatments and management of high grade gliomas have shown little improvement in 5-year overall survival. This phase I trial evaluated the safety, immunogenicity, and potential synergy of surgical resection with Gliadel Wafer implantation, followed by autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cell (DC) vaccine in patients with malignant glioma.

Myxoid glioneuronal tumor, PDGFRA p.K385-mutant: clinical, radiologic, and histopathologic features.

"Myxoid glioneuronal tumor, PDGFRA p.K385-mutant" is a recently described tumor entity of the central nervous system with a predilection for origin in the septum pellucidum and a defining dinucleotide mutation at codon 385 of the PDGFRA oncogene replacing lysine with either leucine or isoleucine (p.K385L/I).

Regulatable interleukin-12 gene therapy in patients with recurrent high-grade glioma: Results of a phase 1 trial.

Human interleukin-12 (hIL-12) is a cytokine with anticancer activity, but its systemic application is limited by toxic inflammatory responses. We assessed the safety and biological effects of an hIL-12 gene, transcriptionally regulated by an oral activator. A multicenter phase 1 dose-escalation trial (NCT02026271) treated 31 patients undergoing resection of recurrent high-grade glioma.

Blockade of a Laminin-411-Notch Axis with CRISPR/Cas9 or a Nanobioconjugate Inhibits Glioblastoma Growth through Tumor-Microenvironment Cross-talk.

There is an unmet need for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The extracellular matrix, including laminins, in the tumor microenvironment is important for tumor invasion and progression. In a panel of 226 patient brain glioma samples, we found a clinical correlation between the expression of tumor vascular laminin-411 (α4β1γ1) with higher tumor grade and with expression of cancer stem cell (CSC) markers, including Notch pathway members, CD133, Nestin, and c-Myc.

Profiles of brain metastases: Prioritization of therapeutic targets.

We sought to compare the tumor profiles of brain metastases from common cancers with those of primary tumors and extracranial metastases in order to identify potential targets and prioritize rational treatment strategies. Tumor samples were collected from both the primary and metastatic sites of nonsmall cell lung cancer, breast cancer and melanoma from patients in locations worldwide, and these were submitted to Caris Life Sciences for tumor multiplatform analysis, including gene sequencing (Sanger and next-generation sequencing with a targeted 47-gene panel), protein expression (assayed by immunohistochemistry) and gene amplification (assayed by in situ hybridization). The data analysis considered differential protein expression, gene amplification and mutations among brain metastases, extracranial metastases and primary tumors.

Isolated Extracranial Intraosseous Metastasis of an Intracranial Meningioma following Bevacizumab Therapy: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Meningiomas account for a significant proportion of all primary intracranial tumors; distant metastasis is quite rare. We report a patient with resected, atypical meningioma. The patient's clinical course over 5 years included two craniotomies, a course of radiation, and a shortened course of bevacizumab.

Search for More Effective Chemotherapeutic Regimens for Gliomas: Challenges and Hopes.

Are truly effective therapies for glioma finally within reach? An explosion of technologies and treatments in recent years brings with it the hope that the revolution is nigh, but decades of gains that can at best be considered incremental understandably temper optimism. Concepts such as "targeted therapy" and "personalized medicine" have grabbed the attention of the oncology community for over a decade; yet when applied to glioblastoma, our initial efforts have amounted to running into battle with limited armaments and an incomplete understanding of the enemy. Still, there is reason to believe that recent insights and advances have changed the equation, with real gains just over the horizon.

Report of safety of pulse dosing of lapatinib with temozolomide and radiation therapy for newly-diagnosed glioblastoma in a pilot phase II study.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are commonly observed in Glioblastoma (GBM) and have long posed as a target for new therapies. Trials involving erlotinib have shown mixed results, likely owing to a mechanism of the mutation that may instead favor other EGFR inhibitors, such as lapatinib. We aimed to determine whether or not pulse high-dose lapatinib was a safe and tolerable regimen in addition to standard therapy.

Planning TTFields treatment using the NovoTAL system-clinical case series beyond the use of MRI contrast enhancement.

Background: Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors in adults and invariably carry a poor prognosis. Recent clinical studies have demonstrated the safety and compelling survival benefit when tumor treating fields (TTFields) are added to temozolomide for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. TTFields are low-intensity, intermediate frequency (200 kHz) alternating electric fields, delivered directly to a patient's brain through the local application of non-invasive transducer arrays.

Brainstem Glioma in Adults.

Brainstem gliomas are not nearly as common in adults as they are in children. They are likely the final common consequence not of a single disease process but of several. They can be difficult to diagnose, and are challenging to treat.

Do Long-Term Survivor Primary Glioblastoma Patients Harbor IDH1 Mutations?

Background: Approximately 3 to 16% of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients are considered long-term survivors (LTS: 3+ years).

Objective: Given the improved survival conferred by IDH1 mutations and the fact that these mutations are detected in 12% of newly diagnosed GBM cases, could long-term survivorship be explained by IDH1 mutation status? Our aim was to describe GBM LTS with IDH1 mutations and explore its association with overall survival (OS).

Methods: Records of 453 newly diagnosed adult GBM patients treated at a single institution from 2004 to 2010 were reviewed retrospectively for patients who survived at least 36 months postsurgery.

Multi-platform molecular profiling of a large cohort of glioblastomas reveals potential therapeutic strategies.

Glioblastomas (GBM) are the most aggressive and prevalent form of gliomas with abysmal prognosis and limited treatment options. We analyzed clinically relevant molecular aberrations suggestive of response to therapies in 1035 GBM tumors. Our analysis revealed mutations in 39 genes of 48 tested.

Long-term Remission Over Six Years for a Patient with Recurrent Glioblastoma Treated with Cediranib/Lomustine.

Cediranib is an orally available, pan-VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor. A previous Phase III study of patients with recurrent glioblastoma treated with this drug did not meet the primary end of progressive-free survival (PFS). We identified one patient, a 57-year-old Caucasian female who, following surgery in October 2008 and concurrent temozolomide and radiation therapy from November 8, 2008, to January 6, 2009, developed a tumor progression of the left posterior frontal measuring 1.

Retrospective analysis of the tolerability and activity of lacosamide in patients with brain tumors: clinical article.

Object: The object of this study was to determine the tolerability and activity of lacosamide in patients with brain tumors.

Methods: The authors reviewed the medical records at 5 US academic medical centers with tertiary brain tumor programs, seeking all patients in whom a primary brain tumor had been diagnosed and who were taking lacosamide.

Results: The authors identified 70 patients with primary brain tumors and reviewed seizure frequency and toxicities.

Strategies for overcoming the blood-brain barrier for the treatment of brain metastases.

The era of targeted therapy for cancer has been punctuated by some resounding successes, but with few exceptions, metastases to the brain remain frustratingly difficult to treat. It is increasingly apparent that old concerns regarding the ability of therapeutic agents to penetrate the blood-brain barrier have not been brushed aside by high-affinity small-molecule kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies. Indeed, illustrative trends, such as the increasing incidence of brain metastases from HER2(+) breast cancer since the advent of trastuzumab therapy, have helped to solidify the concept of the CNS as a sanctuary site for cancer.

A phase II trial of oral gimatecan for recurrent glioblastoma.

Gimatecan is a lipophilic oral camptothecin analogue with preclinical activity in glioma models. We conducted a multicenter phase II trial to evaluate the efficacy of gimatecan in adults with recurrent glioblastoma. Eligibility criteria included ≤1 prior treatment for recurrent disease, age ≥18, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0-1, and normal organ function.

High levels of phosphorylated MAP kinase are associated with poor survival among patients with glioblastoma during the temozolomide era.

We investigated whether high levels of activated mitogen-activated protein kinase (p-MAPK) were associated with poor survival among patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma during the temozolomide era. Nuclear p-MAPK expression of 108 patients with GBM was quantified and categorized in the following levels: low (0%-10%), medium (11%-40%), and high (41%-100%). Independent predictors of overall survival were determined using a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model.