Brachytherapy in Treating Patients With Recurrent Malignant Glioma

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Histologically confirmed malignant glioma
• * Anaplastic astrocytoma, anaplastic oligodendroglioma, or glioblastoma multiforme
• * Low-grade astrocytoma that progresses to high-grade astrocytoma allowed
• * Unifocal disease
• * Progressive or recurrent after radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy
• * Previously treated with at least 5,000 cGy external beam radiotherapy more than 3 months ago
• Candidate for maximal surgical resection
• * Any expected residual enhancing tumor must be within expected brachytherapy treatment volume
• * Resection must not be expected to result in a new permanent neurologic deficit
• No tumor crossing more than 1 cm beyond the midline on preoperative MRI or CT scan
• No grossly or radiographically apparent leptomeningeal spread
• No ventricular invasion outside the anticipated radiotherapy treatment volume
• No marked edema on MRI or CT scan
• Patients with 2 or more separate foci of contrast-enhancing tumors that are more than 5 cm apart on preoperative MRI or CT scan are ineligible
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age
• 18 and over
• Performance status
• Karnofsky 60-100%
• Life expectancy
• Not specified
• Hematopoietic
• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,500/mm\^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm\^3
• Hepatic
• Not specified
• Renal
• Creatinine no greater than 1.7 mg/dL
• BUN no greater than 2 times upper limit of normal
• Cardiovascular
• No uncontrolled hypertension
• No unstable angina pectoris
• No uncontrolled cardiac dysrhythmia
• Other
• Mini mental score at least 15
• No other medical illness that would preclude study participation
• No serious infection
• No other malignancy within the past 5 years except curatively treated carcinoma in situ of the cervix or nonmelanoma skin cancer
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy
• No concurrent immunotherapy
• No concurrent biologic agents (e.g., immunotoxins, immunoconjugates, antiangiogenesis compounds, antisense therapy, peptide receptor antagonists, interferons, interleukins, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, lymphokine-activated killer cells, or gene therapy)
• Chemotherapy
• See Disease Characteristics
• At least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas)
• No concurrent polifeprosan 20 with carmustine implant (Gliadel wafer)
• Endocrine therapy
• Concurrent corticosteroids allowed to improve quality of life
• Radiotherapy
• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent radiosurgery
• Surgery
• See Disease Characteristics
• See Radiotherapy
• Other
• Recovered from prior therapy
• No prior investigational agents
• No investigational agents during and for 90 days after study participation
• Concurrent cytotoxic treatment allowed to improve quality of life