Combination therapy of long-term tumor treating fields with temozolomide and bevacizumab prolongs survival in multifocal glioblastoma diagnosed patient: a case report

Abstract

The multifocal glioblastomas (GBM) are tumors with multiple discrete areas of contrast enhancing tumors which have considerably poorer prognosis than solitary GBM. Median overall survival of diagnosed patients almost twice as less than solitary presentation. We present a case report of multifocal GBM. A 72-year old right-handed male was evaluated at the Neuro-Oncology Clinic of Baylor Scott and White Hospital (Central Division). Patient presented at this hospital because of persistent progressive headaches, confusion, and an incident of fall. Physical evaluation revealed neurological impairments. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed heterogeneous contrast enhancing lesions with associated vasogenic oedema. Patient underwent a stereotactic biopsy analysis of the larger lesion and pathology evaluation concluded an isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 wild type GBM with unmethylated O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase. Treatment remedies: Patient received 4 weeks concurrent radiation therapy along with combination of temozolomide at dose of 75 mg/m2 followed adjuvant temozolomide for 10 cycles with bevacizumab at 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks and Optune treatment. Post treatment evaluation: Repeat MRIs showed near complete resolution of the tumors at 26 months of treatment along with improvement of neurological status. Conclusion: Due to limitations of surgical manipulations in multifocal GBM diagnosed patients, combinational chemo and radiation therapy is the treatment of choice for most cases. Using additional novel treatment with non-invasive therapeutic device proven to be effective is another excellent approach to the established practice. Therefore, combination therapy of Optune plus temozolomide and bevacizumab might be a promising remedy for newly diagnosed multifocal glioblastomas.

Keywords

multifocal glioblastoma / tumor treating fields / temozolomide / bevacizumab