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High-grade astrocytoma treated concomitantly with estramustine and radiotherapy

  • Clinical–patient studies
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Summary

Experimental and early clinical investigations have demonstrated encouraging results for estramustine in the treatment of malignant glioma. The present study is an open randomized clinical trial comparing estramustine phosphate (Estracyt®) in addition to radiotherapy with radiotherapy alone as first line treatment of astrocytoma grade III and IV. The 140 patients included were in a good clinical condition with a median age of 55 years (range 22–87). Estramustine was given orally, 280 mg twice daily, as soon as the diagnosis was established, during and after the radiotherapy for a period of in total 3 months. Radiotherapy was delivered on weekdays 2 Gy daily up to 56 Gy. Eighteen patients were excluded due to misclassification, leaving 122 patients eligible for evaluation. Overall the treatment was well tolerated. Mild or moderate nausea was the most common side effect of estramustine. The minimum follow-up time was 5.2 years for the surviving patients. For astrocytoma grade III the median survival time was 10.6 (1.3–92.7) months for the radiotherapy only group and 17.3 (0.4–96.9+) months for the estramustine  + radiotherapy group. In grade IV the corresponding median survival time was 12.3 (2.1–89.2) and 10.3 (0.3–91.7+) months, respectively. Median time to progress for radiotherapy only and radiotherapy and estramustin group in grade III tumours was 6.5 and 10.1 months, respectively. In grade IV tumours the corresponding figures were 5.1 and 3.3 months, respectively. Although there was a tendency for improved survival in grade III, no statistical significant differences were found between the treatment groups. No differences between the two treatment groups were evident with respect to quality of life according to the EORTC QLQ-protocol. In conclusion, this first randomized study did not demonstrate any significant improvement of using estramustine in addition to conventional radiotherapy, however, a trend for a positive response for the estramustine group was found in patients with grade III glioma.

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Acknowledgements

The support in the initiation of the study by Eeva Nordman, Department of Oncology, University Hospital, Åbo, Finland and the administrative support by Monica Sandström, Department of Oncology, University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Sciences and Oncology, Umeå University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden

    Roger Henriksson, Per Bergström & Tomas Edekling

  2. Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Neurosurgery, Umeå University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden

    Thomas Brännström & A. Tommy Bergenheim

  3. Department of Social Welfare, Umeå University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden

    Pär Salander

  4. Department of Oncology, Linköping University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden

    Annika Malmström

  5. Department of Oncology, Örebro University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden

    Lars Andreasson

  6. Department of Oncology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden

    Gertrud Bergh

  7. Department of Oncology, Uppsala Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden

    Erik Blomquist

  8. Department of Oncology, Borås Hospital, Borås, Sweden

    Sonny Jonsborg

  9. Department of Neurosurgery, University School of Medicine, Lublin, Poland

    Thomas Trojanowski

  10. Department of Radiation Sciences and Oncology, Umeå University Hospital, SE-901 85, Umeå, Sweden

    Roger Henriksson

Authors
  1. Roger Henriksson
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  2. Annika Malmström
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  3. Per Bergström
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  11. Thomas Brännström
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  12. A. Tommy Bergenheim
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Correspondence to Roger Henriksson.

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Henriksson, R., Malmström, A., Bergström, P. et al. High-grade astrocytoma treated concomitantly with estramustine and radiotherapy. J Neurooncol 78, 321–326 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-005-9106-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-005-9106-9

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