Treatment of malignant scala posterior brain tumors in children: The chemotherapy of relapsed medulloblastoma with a dibromdulcitol containing drug regime and pharmacokinetic studies of dibromdulcitol in children

Abstract

Dibromdulcitol (Elobromol) has favorable pharmacokinetic parameters for the treatment of brain tumors: high spinal fluid/plasma ratio and long half-life in spinal fluid. Oral application makes its administration easy. The drug combination vincristine, procarbazine, and dibromdulcitol proved to be effective in a pilot trial on relapsed medulloblastomas: 8 complete and 4 partial remissions were achieved from 16 cases. The main side effect was granulocytopenia, which was in some cases severe. However, in the dose-schedule we used it did not delay the treatment longer than 1 week.

Chemotherapy of Medulloblastoma in Children

“…The application of methotrexate is limited not only because of its potential side effects, but also because it can be used only before radiotherapy, however, some protocols described rather good results in cases when no irradiation was done (Bleyer, 1981;Chi et al, 2004;Fossati-Bellani et al, 1990;Rutkowski et al, 2005). The alkylating oral drug dibromdulcitol was an excellent substance for the treatment of medulloblastomas because its favourable pharmacokinetic properties in the spinal fluid and its tolerable toxicity (Paál et al, 1994;Schuler et al, 1988Schuler et al, , 1992. Later in spite of the good clinical results the drug became unavailable.…”

Arsonoliposomes for the Potential Treatment of Medulloblastoma

“…The clinical treatment of these tumours is highly aggressive: surgery is needed to remove the medulloblastoma, and both radiotherapy and chemotherapy are used to avoid recurrences (4). Furthermore, chemotherapeutic agents like dibromodulcitol and carboplatin exhibit some important side effects, such as anaemia (5), leucopenia and thrombocytopenia (6). To reduce the inconveniences introduced by these side effects, chemotherapeutic agents can be encapsulated in drug delivery systems, such as liposomes.…”