Whole Brain Irradiation in Primary Central Nervous System (CNS) Lymphoma (PCNSL)
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2009-05-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The aim of the study is to deliver primary systemic high-dose methotrexate (MTX) treatment to
PCNSL patients and to define the role of whole brain irradiation (WBI) in primary therapy,
i.e., to analyze whether patients who have undergone primary chemotherapy can postpone
irradiation with its possible late sequelae until recurrence without incurring losses in
progression-free and overall survival. This is studied here for the first time worldwide in a
systematic, controlled and randomized manner. In this study, one arm with six cycles of
high-dose MTX and subsequent irradiation (A1), which comes closest to a "standard arm of
primary therapy", at least according to the majority assessment, is compared to irradiation
at recurrence with regard to time to progression and overall survival (A2). In primary
therapy failure, it will also be analyzed to what extent salvage therapy with AraC is
equivalent to irradiation as the "standard arm" with regard to time to progression and
overall survival (arm B1 and B2).