Investigating Mechanistic Predictors of Interpatient Variability and Temozolomide (TMZ) Induced Haematological Toxicity for Glioma Patients

A medication called temozolomide has been used for many years in the treatment of high-grade gliomas, which are tumours that originate in the brain. While this drug is the normal treatment for high-grade glioma, a number of patients develop a side-effect which results in low levels of some important blood cells, such as platelets or white blood cells. If this side-effect occurs, treatment with temozolomide may have to be stopped or paused, which may affect how well this treatment works.

At present, it is unknown why some patients develop this side effect and others do not. It is known that patients with a higher concentration of temozolomide in their blood are at an increased risk of developing this toxicity. There may be some factors associated with the movement of the drug in the body or the removal of the drug from the body which may affect the concentration of temozolomide in blood. There are many factors which may be involved, including genes, other medicines that are taken, how well kidneys and liver are working or even the microbiome (which is the bacteria in the gut).

This study is being done to find out what these factors could be. In the future, this may lead to medical care teams being able to predict which patients are at higher risk of side-effects, allowing them to implement measures to reduce the risk of this occurring.