Phase II study of homoharringtonine in patients with recurrent primary malignant central nervous system tumors

A phase 11 trial of Homoharringtonine (HHT) was performed in 15 patients with recurrent or progressive malignant glioma. The drug was administered at a initial dose of 4 mg/m²/day by continuous 5 day intravenous infusion (3 mg/m²/day x 5 days for heavily pretreated patients). Courses were repeated every 3–4 weeks upon recovery from toxicity. No objective antitumor regressions occurred. Two patients had no change in their CT brain scans for 2–3 months and one patient had stable disease for 6 months. Toxicity was tolerable and included myelosuppression and occasionally mild hypotension. Chemosensitivity testing with HHT and several other chemotherapy drugs was performed in glioma cell lines, including cell lines derived from these patients. The results suggest that HHT is an inactive drug in malignant glioma using this dose schedule.