Cooperative Multicenter Study for Children and Adolescents With Low Grade Glioma

OBJECTIVES:

• Provide a comprehensive treatment strategy for children and adolescents with low-grade glioma of all tumour locations and histologies.
• Provide standardized treatment indication and treatment recommendations for non-surgical therapy in children and adolescents with low grade glioma without and with associated neurofibrosis-type 1 (NF1) at diagnosis or after observation.
• Determine overall, event-free, and progression-free survival.
• Radiotherapy arm: a. Determine progression free survival in older children without NF1 treated with radiotherapy using modern techniques for planning and treatment. b. Determine the reduction of the rate and intensity of possible late effects of therapy to the organs at risk by optimized planning and treatment.
• Chemotherapy arm: a. Determine progression free survival for younger children without NF1 treated with chemotherapy and randomized to either the 2-drug or the 3-drug induction regimen. b. Determine the distribution of response at week 24 (after induction) for younger children without NF1 treated with chemotherapy and randomized to either the 2-drug or the 3-drug induction regimen. c. Determine progression free survival for children with NF1treated with chemotherapy.
• Determine the influence of clinical and histological findings on overall survival, progression-free and event-free survival in these patients.
• Determine prospectively the late effects of tumor and therapy in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a partially randomized, open-label, multicenter study.

Children with completely resected tumors, incompletely resected tumors, or those with clinically/neuroradiologically diagnosed tumors, who do not have severe symptoms at diagnosis, are only observed during follow-up.

Children with unresectable/incompletely-resectable tumors, or those with relapsed disease and those observed following incomplete initial resection or neuroradiologic diagnosis and clinical and/or neuro-radiologic progression receive non-surgical therapy. This non-surgical therapy is either chemotherapy (for children younger than 8 years and those with neurofibrosis-type 1 [NF1]) or radiotherapy (for children older than 8 years).