DIPG/DIPT Discussion

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A searchable blog on DIPG research, DIPG news, recent publications, DIPG Foundations, DIPG researchers, clinical trials as well as other issues relating to Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Tumors- both Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPGs) and Atypical Pontine Lesions (APLs).

For parents, family and friends of children with DIPG looking for information and connection to others dealing with DIPG please check the buttons on the right hand side for resources.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Patterns of Progression in Pediatric Patients with High-Grade Glioma or Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma treated with Bevacizumab-Based Therapy at Diagnosis

The first hints of data from a Cincinnati/Lurie Children's study using temozolomide, irinotecan and avastin appears to be coming out with a poster presentation at the 3rd biennial Pediatric Basic and Translational Research Conference looking at patterns of progression with an avastin-based therapy for kids with newly diagnosed DIPG or high grade glioma.

The issues of potential increased invasiveness and spread have been popping up for the past few years. We have seen discussions of this in internet-based communities as well as publications in adult GBM patients.   Common terms related to this are "diffuse invasiveness" and "evasive resistance".   The adult literature has some that do not believe that avastin increases remote relapses.  There is very little regarding children relapse patterns with bevacizumab-based therapies.

In this study of 17 patients (14 DIPG and 3 HGG), 12 patients had progressive disease in a median time of 8.2 months.  In nine patients the furst progression was local and  in the remaining three the progression was local, diffuse and distant.   However with further progressive disease a total of six children had diffuse or distant progression.

The authors speculate that these findings might be explained by increasing invasiveness through co-opting native blood vessels or activation of other pro-angiogenic pathways.     

It would be interesting to have direct comparison to non-bevacizamab-based therapies for comparison as other authors have indicated a high risk of leptomeningeal dissemination with DIPG.  Interestingly, in that study 8 of the 16 children had leptomeningeal spread but only the 3 with anti-VEGF (2 with avastin and 1 with vandetanib) had spread to bilateral cerebral hemispheres.  The other 5 had spread to the spinal cord or posterior fossa.

It is likely questions like this is where a registry can be valuable if one is able to look at a large number of imaging studies. 

Reference:
Patterns of Progression in Pediatric Patients with High-Grade Glioma or Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma treated with Bevacizumab-Based Therapy at Diagnosis
https://soc-neuro-onc.conference-services.net/reports/template/onetextabstract.xml?xsl=template/onetextabstract.xsl&conferenceID=3467&abstractID=736163

A Study of Bevacizumab Therapy in Patients With Newly Diagnosed High-Grade Gliomas and Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00890786?term=dipg&rank=10

Bevacizumab does not increase remote relapse in malignant glioma
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21446027

Prospective neuroaxis surveillance reviews a high risk of leptmeningeal dissemination in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20623246