Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy With or Without Second-Look Surgery Followed by Radiation Therapy With or Without Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation in Treating Patients With Intracranial Germ Cell Tumors

• Response (complete and partial response) [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Toxic death [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
  
• Occurrence of nonhematological grade 4 toxicity during chemotherapy [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
  

• Event-free survival [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Progression-free survival [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Overall survival [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the response rate of patients with non-germinomatous germ cell tumors treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
• Determine the progression-free survival and overall survival of patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without second-look surgery followed by radiotherapy with or without autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT).
• Determine whether additional complete responses can be achieved after high-dose thiotepa and etoposide with PBSCT in patients with persistently positive markers, histological evidence of residual malignant elements, or unresectable residual tumors after initial neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
• Determine patterns of recurrence in patients treated with this regimen.
• Correlate tumor marker response with radiographic and clinical measures of response, as well as findings at second-look surgery in patients with radiological evidence of residual disease.

OUTLINE:

• Induction chemotherapy:

  • Courses 1, 3, and 5: Patients receive carboplatin IV over 1 hour on day 1 and etoposide IV over 1 hour on days 1-3. Beginning on day 4, patients receive filgrastim (G-CSF) IV or subcutaneously (SC) for 10 days or until blood counts recover. Courses are 3 weeks in duration.
  • Courses 2, 4, and 6: Patients receive etoposide IV over 1 hour followed by ifosfamide IV over 1 hour on days 1-5. Beginning on day 6, patients receive G-CSF IV or SC for 10 days or until blood counts recover. Courses are 3 weeks in duration.

Patients undergo re-evaluation. Patients with a complete response (CR) go directly to radiotherapy. Approximately 3 weeks after completion of induction chemotherapy, all patients with less than a CR are encouraged to undergo second-look surgery.

After second-look surgery, patients with a CR or a partial response (PR) go directly to radiotherapy. Patients with less than a PR undergo consolidation chemotherapy with peripheral blood stem cell rescue (PBSC) followed by radiotherapy.

• Consolidation chemotherapy: Patients undergo PBSC collection. Patients receive G-CSF SC until PBSC collection is complete. Patients then receive thiotepa IV over 3 hours followed by etoposide IV over 3 hours on days -5 to -3. PBSCs are reinfused on day 0. Beginning on day 1 and continuing until blood counts recover, patients receive G-CSF SC daily.
• Radiotherapy: All patients receive radiotherapy once daily 5 days a week for 5-6 weeks beginning after recovery from induction chemotherapy or second-look surgery or within 9 weeks after PBSC reinfusion.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 4 months for 1 year, every 6 months for 1 year, and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 80-100 patients will be accrued for this study within 36-42 months.