Mustafa Khasraw, MD

Mustafa Khasraw, MD, medical oncologist, neuro-oncologist, and deputy director of the Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Duke Cancer Institute, discusses a follow-up trial to the VERTU study (NCT02152982) for patient with methylated or unmethylated MGMT (O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase) glioblastoma who responded well to temozolomide (Temodar) chemotherapy and radiation.

For the follow-up trial, after receiving temozolomide and radiation, patients were randomized to veliparib (ABT-888), a PARP (poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase) inhibitor, with temozolomide and radiation or placebo with temozolomide and radiation. This study has a larger number of patients than the VERTU trial and has been completed, according to Khasraw. He expects the results will come out sometime over the year of 2020. The patients included in this trial were those left out the original VERTU trial.

Khasraw says that moving forward, there needs to be biomarkers and subsets of patients identified for this setting; specifically, those who will benefit from a PARP inhibitor, if there is a benefit at all. He also suggests that other treatments be explored, such as combinations of immunotherapy for patients with glioblastomas.

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Mustafa Khasraw, MD, discusses a follow-up trial to the VERTU study for patient with methylated or unmethylated MGMT glioblastoma who responded well to temozolomide chemotherapy and radiation.

Further Investigation of Veliparib Underway for Glioblastoma

Mustafa Khasraw, MD, deputy directoy, medical oncologist and nuerologist, Duke Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Duke Cancer Center, Duke Health, discusses the purpose of the phase II VERTU study and shares key takeaways from his presentation at the 2019 Society for NeuroOncology Annual Meeting

The study randomized patients to standard treatment (radiotherapy) plus temzolomide chemotherapy for glioblastoma or the combination of PARP inhibitor veliparib (ABT-888) with radiotherapy followed by temzolomide in combination with veliparib, which was the experimental arm of the trail. The study included patients with glioblastoma who have a poor prognosis due to an unmethylated enzyme called MGMT. The purpose of the experiment was to make DNA-repair inefficient so that cancer cells would be eliminated.

The experimental combination did not improve survival in patients with unmethylated MGMT glioblastoma despite previous signals of activity in animal subjects, which was the rationale for the VERTU study.

Mustafa Khasraw, MD, discusses the purpose II VERTU study and shares key takeaways from his presentation at the 2019 Society for NeuroOncology Annual Meeting.

Mustafa Khasraw, MD | Authors

Articles

Further Investigation of Veliparib Underway for Glioblastoma

Khasraw Discusses Veliparib Combination Used in Patients With Unmethylated MGMT Glioblastoma