Effectiveness of novel combination chemotherapy, consisting of
Temozolomide, Bevacizumab and Irinotecan as salvage chemotherapy regimen
in the treatment of primary pediatric brain tumors
Abstract
Abstract Background: Primary pediatric brain tumors are the most
prevalent type of childhood tumors and the most common cause of cancer
death among children. However, there is insufficient literature
regarding the use of novel chemotherapy agents to treat such tumors.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of
Irinotecan-based chemotherapy regimen for the treatment of primary brain
tumors as well as minimizing morbidity and mortality rates. Procedure:
In this cross-sectional study, 88 children aged 0 to 18 years old with
primary brain tumors were investigated. Data was extracted from
patients’ medical records. 38 patients received Irinotecan treatment
from the beginning (B) or after relapse (AB). At study termination, the
response rate to the treatment as well as the Overall Survival (OS) and
6 months Progression Free Survival (6-mo-PFS) were estimated using
Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and PFS estimation. Results: According to
the findings of this study, pediatric brain tumors in males are more
common than in females (60% in comparison to 40%). The highest
incidence of brain tumors was reported in the age range of 6 to 12 years
old. The findings of this study suggest that there is no statistically
significant correlation between OS/6-mo-PFS and age, sex, tumor type,
type of treatment and relapse. Conclusions: The administration of
combination Irinotecan-based regimen leads to a high response rate and
low toxicity in some types of primary pediatric brain tumors especially
embryonal tumors, while it has little effect on others such as
astrocytoma and ependymoma.