Efficacy and Safety Study of Lomustine/Temozolomide Combination Therapy vs. Standard Therapy for Glioblastoma Patients

Summary

The prognosis of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma is dismal despite recent therapeutic improvements Using standard therapy with temozolomide (TMZ) and radiotherapy (60 Gy), the median overall survival time (mOS) is 14.6 months (Stupp et al., 2005). Since in a previous non-randomized bicentric phase II trial, primary combination chemotherapy with lomustine (CCNU) and TMZ was highly effective (mOS 23 months; UKT-03 trial; Herrlinger et al., 2006; Glas et al., 2009) the proposed trial further investigates the efficacy of CCNU/TMZ in a randomized multicenter phase III setting against standard therapy. In case the projected phase III trial confirms the phase II data, CCNU/TMZ combination would be significantly better than TMZ monotherapy and would thus be the new standard treatment for newly diagnosed GBM patients with a methylated MGMT promotor. Thus, this trial has the potential to profoundly change the standard therapy of this most aggressive brain tumor. Since in the previous trial only patients with a methylated MGMT (mMGMT) promoter had a benefit from CCNU/TMZ (mOS in the mMGMT group 34 months, in the non-mMGMT group 12.5 months; Glas et al., 2009) while patients with a non-methylated MGMT did not have any benefit, the trial is restricted to mMGMT patients.The CeTeG trial randomizes in a 1:1 fashion newly diagnosed GBM patients (18-70 years) for either standard TMZ therapy (concomitant and 6 courses à 4 weeks of adjuvant TMZ therapy) or experimental CCNU/TMZ therapy (6 courses à 6 weeks). Both arms include standard radiotherapy (RT) of the tumor site (30 x 2 Gy). Assuming that CCNU/TMZ therapy increases the median overall survival (mOS) from 48.9% (standard TMZ) to 70% (CCNU/TMZ; 75% in the previous phase II trial, Glas et al., 2009), 2 x 68 patients have to be accrued. Patients will be accrued over 24 months and each patient will be followed for at least 24 months adding up to a total minimal duration of the time from first patient in until the end of the follow-up time of 48 months. The primary endpoint is overall survival; secondary endpoints include progression-free survival, response rate, acute and late toxicity, and quality of life.

Timeline

Start

2010-10

Primary completion

2017-04-06

Completion

2017-04-06

Publications

• Weller J, Schafer N, Schaub C, Tzaridis T, Zeyen T, Schneider M, Potthoff AL, Giordano FA, Steinbach JP, Zeiner PS, Kowalski T, Sabel M, Hau P, Krex D, Grauer O, Goldbrunner R, Schnell O, Tabatabai G, Ringel F, Schmidt-Graf F, Brehmer S, Tonn JC, Bullinger L, Vajkoczy P, Glas M, Vatter H, Herrlinger U, Seidel C. Patterns, predictors and prognostic relevance of high-grade hematotoxicity after temozolomide or temozolomide-lomustine in the CeTeG/NOA-09 trial. J Neurooncol. 2023 Jan;161(1):147-153. doi: 10.1007/s11060-022-04203-4. Epub 2023 Jan 7.
• Tzaridis T, Schafer N, Weller J, Steinbach JP, Schlegel U, Seidel S, Sabel M, Hau P, Seidel C, Krex D, Goldbrunner R, Tonn JC, Grauer O, Kebir S, Schneider M, Schaub C, Vatter H, Coch C, Glas M, Fimmers R, Pietsch T, Reifenberger G, Herrlinger U, Felsberg J. MGMT promoter methylation analysis for allocating combined CCNU/TMZ chemotherapy: Lessons learned from the CeTeG/NOA-09 trial. Int J Cancer. 2021 Apr 1;148(7):1695-1707. doi: 10.1002/ijc.33363. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
• Weller J, Tzaridis T, Mack F, Steinbach JP, Schlegel U, Hau P, Krex D, Grauer O, Goldbrunner R, Bahr O, Uhl M, Seidel C, Tabatabai G, Brehmer S, Bullinger L, Galldiks N, Schaub C, Kebir S, Stummer W, Simon M, Fimmers R, Coch C, Glas M, Herrlinger U, Schafer N. Health-related quality of life and neurocognitive functioning with lomustine-temozolomide versus temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed, MGMT-methylated glioblastoma (CeTeG/NOA-09): a randomised, multicentre, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2019 Oct;20(10):1444-1453. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30502-9. Epub 2019 Sep 2.
• Herrlinger U, Tzaridis T, Mack F, Steinbach JP, Schlegel U, Sabel M, Hau P, Kortmann RD, Krex D, Grauer O, Goldbrunner R, Schnell O, Bahr O, Uhl M, Seidel C, Tabatabai G, Kowalski T, Ringel F, Schmidt-Graf F, Suchorska B, Brehmer S, Weyerbrock A, Renovanz M, Bullinger L, Galldiks N, Vajkoczy P, Misch M, Vatter H, Stuplich M, Schafer N, Kebir S, Weller J, Schaub C, Stummer W, Tonn JC, Simon M, Keil VC, Nelles M, Urbach H, Coenen M, Wick W, Weller M, Fimmers R, Schmid M, Hattingen E, Pietsch T, Coch C, Glas M; Neurooncology Working Group of the German Cancer Society. Lomustine-temozolomide combination therapy versus standard temozolomide therapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma with methylated MGMT promoter (CeTeG/NOA-09): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2019 Feb 16;393(10172):678-688. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31791-4. Epub 2019 Feb 14.

Drugs

Indications