High-Dose Methotrexate in Treating Young Patients With Residual Ependymoma

• Status: Unknown status
• Trial end date: 1969-12-31
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as methotrexate, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing.

PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well high-dose methotrexate works in treating young patients with residual ependymoma.

• Phase: Phase 2
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group
• Treatments: Methotrexate

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed ependymoma, including the following histologic variants:

• Cellular

• Papillary

• Clear-cell

• Tanycytic

• Anaplastic (malignant) ependymoma

• The following diagnoses are excluded:

• Myxopapillary ependymoma

• Subependymomas

• Ependymoblastomas

• Primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs)

• Other neuroepithelial tumors

• Choroid plexus tumors

• Germ cell tumors

• Residual measurable ependymoma after maximal surgical resection, including second-look surgery, if deemed necessary

• Has undergone surgical resection within the past 3 weeks

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• At least 3 months to under 3 years of age

• Neutrophil count > 1,000/mm^3

• Platelet count > 100,000/mm^3

• Able to tolerate chemotherapy

• No co-existent unrelated disease (i.e., renal or hematological) that would preclude chemotherapy treatment

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics

• Recovered from prior surgery

• No previous chemotherapy

• Previous steroids allowed

• No previous radiotherapy