[A study of the use of sequential chemotherapy in 176 cases of glioblastoma (author's transl)].

Sequential administration of VM 26 and CCNU has been used in France for the treatment of glioblastoma since 1973. Results have shown that this association can cause a remission lasting, on average, from seven to eight months after starting chemotherapy. It seems that, adding Adriamycin to this sequential therapy does not increase its efficiency. On the other side, dosage and the interval between cycles of chemotherapy appear to be a determining factor in the activity, but the limits are very narrow. Therapy is either ineffective or has doubtful efficiency in about one third of patients, and even when prolonged clinical remission is obtained, cessation of therapy, usually due to a persistent thrombopenia is followed by progression of the tumour in the following months. The large amount of research being made in the field of cellular kinetics and pharcacology will, hopefully, lead to improvement in results.