Background: There is no standard salvage treatment for recurrent and/or unresectable brainstem low-grade gliomas after failure from carboplatin and vincristine chemotherapy. Recombinant human endostatin (rh-ES), a mild inhibitor of angiogenesis, has been used for treating lung cancer. But so far as we know, there is no experience for brainstem gliomas.
Case description: The authors present a pediatric case of recurrent brainstem pilocytic astrocytoma with neuraxis dissemination who experienced tumor progression with carboplatin and vincristine chemotherapy but then had a dramatic and long-term remission for at least 29 months after combined treatment of rh-ES with carboplatin and vincristine.
Conclusion: This case suggests that the addition of rh-ES to carboplatin and vincristine regimens may be synergistic and results in a long-term remission in patients with brainstem low-grade gliomas, even if the tumor is widely spread in the central nervous system.
Keywords: Brainstem; Carboplatin; Chemotherapy; Low-grade glioma; Pilocytic astrocytoma; Recombinant human endostatin; Vincristine.
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