Study: Chemo effective as initial therapy for pediatric optic pathway tumors

Prolonged chemotherapy can help avoid use of radiotherapy in children with optic pathway tumors, according to a retrospective French study.

Jacques Grill, MD, and colleagues at several institutions in France reviewed the charts of 85 children with progressive optic pathway tumors. Multiagent chemotherapy was administered during the first 16 months at 3 week intervals. Treatments were alternated between procarbazine plus carboplatin, etoposide plus cisplatin and vincristine plus cyclophosphamide.

The authors note that second line chemotherapy was used for any relapse or progression before radiotherapy was considered.

There was a 42% objective response rate to the chemotherapy, with 34% of patients having 5 years of progression-free survival. Overall, there was an 89% survival rate. There was also a 61% radiotherapy-free survival rate at 5 years, the authors noted.

Infants under 1 year of age (P < .047) and absence of neurofibromatosis type 1 (P < .035) were both significantly associated with disease progression.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.