Alanosine in Treating Patients With Progressive or Recurrent Malignant Gliomas

Inclusion Criteria

• •DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Histologically confirmed malignant glioma of 1 of the following types:
• •* Anaplastic astrocytoma
• •* Anaplastic oligodendroglioma
• •* Glioblastoma multiforme
• •Progressive or recurrent disease after prior radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy
• •* Low-grade glioma that progressed after prior radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy and is found to be high-grade glioma after biopsy allowed
• •* No more than 2 prior treatment regimens
• •Measurable disease by CT scan or MRI
• •Documented absence of methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) on fixed tumor specimens
• •PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Age
• •18 and over
• •Performance status
• •Karnofsky 60-100%
• •Life expectancy
• •Not specified
• •Hematopoietic
• •Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/mm\^3
• •Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm\^3
• •Hepatic
• •Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 mg/dL
• •Transaminases ≤ 4 times upper limit of normal
• •Renal
• •Creatinine ≤ 1.5 mg/dL
• •Other
• •Not pregnant or nursing
• •Negative pregnancy test
• •Fertile patients must use effective barrier contraception before, during, and for 4 weeks after study participation
• •Mini mental state exam score of ≥ 15
• •No psychological or sociological condition, addictive disorder, or family problem that would preclude study compliance
• •No other malignancy within the past 5 years except curatively treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix or breast
• •No concurrent serious infection or medical illness that would preclude study participation
• •PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• •Biologic therapy
• •No concurrent prophylactic growth factors (e.g., filgrastim \[G-CSF\] or sargramostim \[GM-CSF\])
• •Chemotherapy
• •See Disease Characteristics
• •At least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas)
• •Endocrine therapy
• •Must be maintained on a stable or lower corticosteroid regimen from the time of the baseline scan until the start of study treatment
• •No concurrent steroids as antiemetics
• •Radiotherapy
• •See Disease Characteristics
• •At least 3 months since prior radiotherapy
• •Surgery
• •Not specified
• •Other
• •Recovered from prior therapy
• •More than 10 days since prior anticonvulsant drugs that induce hepatic metabolic enzymes
• •No other concurrent investigational agents