Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University Announces Huge Finding for Rare Brain Tumor Patients

1/26/2012

The addition of chemotherapy to radiation therapy nearly doubled median survival time for patients with anaplastic oligodendroglioma, a rare type of brain tumor, containing a genetic abnormality known as the 1p19q co-deletion. The finding, from a phase III trial in which patients were followed for a median of 11 years, may result in changes to at least one ongoing National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trial. Dr. Walter J. Curran, Jr., executive director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, was a senior author of the study. Curran is also group chairman of RTOG. Among patients whose tumors carried the abnormality, those treated with chemotherapy and radiation survived for a median of 14.7 years, compared with 7.3 years for those who received radiation alone. View Full Article