Introduction: The prognosis of malignant gliomas despite of the recent advances of diagnostical and therapeutical techniques remains poor. The majority of gliomas following total removal and postoperative radiotherapy recurs. In case of recurrencies reoperation is rarely possible and chemotherapy is the last treatment modality.
Methods: Forty patients with recurrent malignant gliomas had been treated with temozolomide (Temodal). The treatment had to be stopped in four cases.
Results: Complete remission was observed in 3, partial in 11, progressive disease in 4 and stable disease in 50% of the cases with CT and/or MR images. The mean progress free interval was 6.25 and the mean survival time 9 months. According to the primary histology the mean survival time for glioblastoma patients was 6.8 and for anaplastic astrocytoma or mixed oligoastrocytoma patients 12.2 months.
Conclusions: Due to its low toxicity and relatively long survival time after recurrency temozolomide seems to be a promising drug in the treatment of recurrent malignant gliomas.