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Abstract #0983

Evaluation of Gemcitabine as an Alternative Treatment to Temozolomide for High Grade Gliomas.

Benjamin Lemasson1, Stefanie Galbn2, Terence M.Willians2, Fei Li1, Kevin A. Heist1, Timothy D. Johnson3, Alnawaz Rehemtulla1,2, Craig J. Galbn1, Brian Dale Ross1

1Radiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States; 2Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Center for Molecular Imaging, Ann Arbor, MI, United States; 3Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States


We evaluated the efficacy of Gemcitabine+radiation to standard of care, Temozolomide+radiation, using a genetically engineered glioblastoma model in mice. We also tested the sensitivity of DW-MRI as a surrogate imaging biomarker of tumor response. We found that Gemcitabine+radiation resulted in a significant reduction in tumor volume and prolonged survival (same as temozolomide+radiation) in this clinically-relevant GBM mouse model. We also demonstrated the successful implementation of imaging biomarker surrogates (ADC) which correlated with therapeutic effectiveness. Based on these results, Gemcitabine+radiation appeared to be a suitable alternative to treat gliomas that have a poor response to traditional therapies (eg. unmethylated MGMT).