High-grade malignant gliomas are inevitably fatal, despite every effort to
in improve this prognosis, including various radiotherapeutic modalities, r
adio- and chemotherapeutic associations and combinations of several drugs.
High-dose chemotherapy and autologous bone-marrow transplantation (ABMT) ha
ve been increasingly used in the last 10 years for solid tumors, and severa
l phase II studies in high-grade glioma patients have been conducted in the
setting of both adjuvant treatment and recurrent disease. The most frequen
tly used drug in the conditioning regimens is BCNU at doses higher than tha
t employed by other regimens in other pathologies (800-1000 mg/ m(2)). Thes
e dosages involve a high toxicity that is not balanced by a significant imp
rovement in survival. New drugs and/or regimens must be tested in randomize
d trials.