6533b834fe1ef96bd129d7e4

RESEARCH PRODUCT

In the literature: May 2016

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Radiotherapy as single modality was considered the standard of care for low-grade gliomas, a mixed population of low proliferative tumours including oligodendrogliomas, oligoastrocytomas and grade 2 astrocytomas. However, a recently reported trial in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates1 that the addition of procarbacine, lomustine (CCNU) and vincristine, a combination known by its acronym, PCV, significantly prolongs survival in patients with low-grade glioma. When this trial was initially reported in 2012, after a median follow-up of almost 6 years, according to the estimated number of events needed to analyse the results, a significant difference in progression-free survival (PFS) was found. However, only 38% of patients had died at that time and overall survival (OS) did not differ among patients randomised to receive radiotherapy or those allocated to get six courses of PCV after completing radiation. In the current report, the median follow-up was 11.9 months and 55% of patients had already died. Median OS is prolonged by 5.5 years, moving from 7.8 years for radiotherapy to 13.3 for multimodality treatment, with a reduction of the risk of death by 41% with a HR of 0.59 (p=0.003). The absolute …