[Trial treatment of glioblastomas in adults and cerebral metastais by adriamycin, VM 26 and CCNU combination. Result of a type II trial].

Forty-three patients with inoperable and/or recurring malignant gliomas, and 30 patients with multiple recurring brain metastases were treated with a combination of adriamycine (45 mg/m2) and 4-dimethyl-epipodophyllotoxin D-thenylidene (VM 26) (60 mg/m2 for 2 days) with 1-(2-chloroethyl) -3-cyclohexyl-1-nitroso-urea (CCNU) (60 mg/m2 for two days). These cycles of treatment were repeated as soon as the hematological restoration was complete. The treatment was well tolerated and the clinical condition of 31 out of 43 glioblastoma patients improved during the two months after the beginning of the treatment. Six out of eight patients with breast cancer metastases, one out of 13 with bronchial cancer metastases and three out of nine with other types of cancer metastases also benefitted from the treatment. Examination of the results obtained reveals the following characteristics: -A low degree of efficiency of the combination in the treatment of brain metastases, except for breast cancer metastases. -Absence of complete correlation between the clinical results observed and the cinegammagraphic developments. -Similarity of the results independent of the initial localization. -Establishment of a six-months median survival period, with ten patients at present in a state of apparently complete remission, 180 to 506 days after beginning of the treatment.