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DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• - One of the following newly diagnosed, nondisseminated brain tumors: - Intrinsic infiltrating brain stem glioma.

• - Histopathologic diagnosis not required.

• - Histopathologically confirmed high-grade glioma, meeting all of the following criteria: - Underwent prior definitive surgery ≤ 28 days ago with incompletely resected disease.

• - Any of the following subtypes allowed: - Anaplastic astrocytoma.

• - Glioblastoma multiforme.

• - Other high-grade glioma.

• - No anaplastic oligodendroglioma.

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• - Karnofsky performance scale (PS) 50-100% (if > 16 years of age) or Lansky PS 50-100% (if ≤ 16 years of age) - Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,000/mm³ - Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm³ (transfusion independent) - Hemoglobin ≥ 8 g/dL (transfusion independent) - Creatinine clearance or radioisotope glomerular filtration rate ≥ 70 mL/min OR creatinine based on age as follows: - No more than 0.8 mg/dL (for patients 5 years of age and under) - No more than 1 mg/dL (for patients 6-10 years of age) - No more than 1.2 mg/dL (for patients 11-15 years of age) - No more than 1.5 mg/dL (for patients over 15 years of age) - Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN) - ALT ≤ 5 times ULN.

• - Not pregnant or nursing.

• - Negative pregnancy test.

• - Fertile patients must use effective contraception.

• - No uncontrolled infection.

• - No significant cardiac, hepatic, gastrointestinal, renal, pulmonary, or other systemic disease.

• - No known hypersensitivity to capecitabine or any of its components.

• - No known dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency.

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• - See Disease Characteristics.

• - Prior dexamethasone and/or surgery allowed.

• - No prior chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, or bone marrow transplantation.

• - No other concurrent anticancer or experimental drug therapies or agents.

- No concurrent warfarin or sorivudine or its chemically related analogues (e.g., brivudine)

OBJECTIVES: Primary.

• - Estimate the maximum tolerated dose of capecitabine rapidly disintegrating tablets (RDT) administered concurrently with radiotherapy in young patients with newly diagnosed, nondisseminated intrinsic brain stem glioma or high-grade glioma.

• - Describe the dose-limiting toxicity in patients treated with this regimen.

Secondary.

• - Describe the safety profile of this regimen.

• - Characterize the pharmacokinetics of capecitabine RDT in these patients.

• - Explore the exposure-response relationship for measures of safety and effectiveness using pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic models.

• - Describe the antitumor activity of this regimen observed in these patients.

• - Estimate distributions of progression-free survival and survival in patients treated with this regimen.

• - Characterize radiographic changes in tumor, using MRI, perfusion and diffusion MRI, and positron emission tomography (PET) scans, in patients treated with this regimen.

OUTLINE: This a multicenter, dose-escalation study of capecitabine rapidly disintegrating tablets (RDT). Patients undergo radiotherapy once daily, 5 days a week, for approximately 6 weeks. Beginning within 24 hours of starting radiotherapy, patients also receive oral capecitabine RDT twice daily on days 1-21. Treatment with capecitabine RDT repeats every 21 days for 3 courses. Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of capecitabine RDT until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 3 or 2 of 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity. Beginning in week 12, patients receive capecitabine RDT at a fixed dose twice daily on days 1-14. Treatment repeats every 21 days for 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients undergo blood collection periodically during course 1 for pharmacokinetic correlative studies. Patients also undergo MRI, and rapid perfusion/diffusion MRI at baseline and periodically during study for radiographic correlative studies. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed periodically for 2 years. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 18 patients will be accrued for this study.