Thalidomide and Procarbazine in Treating Patients With Recurrent or Progressive Malignant Glioma

Inclusion Criteria

• •DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Histologically confirmed malignant glioma
• •* Anaplastic astrocytoma
• •* Anaplastic oligodendroglioma
• •* Glioblastoma multiforme
• •* Anaplastic mixed oligoastrocytoma
• •Progressive or recurrent disease\* after radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy NOTE: \*Patients with prior low-grade glioma who progressed after therapy and are found to have high-grade glioma are eligible
• •Measurable disease by MRI or CT scan
• •PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Age
• •18 and over
• •Performance status
• •Karnofsky 60-100%
• •Life expectancy
• •More than 2 months
• •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 ≤ 1.7 mg/dL
• •Other
• •Not pregnant or nursing
• •Negative pregnancy test
• •Fertile patients must use 1 highly active method and 1 additional effective method of contraception for 1 month before, during, and for 4 weeks after study treatment
• •No concurrent serious infection
• •No other concurrent medical illness that would preclude study treatment
• •No other malignancy within the past 5 years except curatively treated carcinoma in situ of the cervix or basal cell skin cancer
• •PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• •Biologic therapy
• •No prior thalidomide
• •No concurrent prophylactic filgrastim (G-CSF)
• •Chemotherapy
• •See Disease Characteristics
• •At least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas)
• •No prior procarbazine
• •No more than 2 prior chemotherapy regimens for malignant glioma
• •Endocrine therapy
• •Not specified
• •Radiotherapy
• •See Disease Characteristics
• •At least 3 months since prior radiotherapy
• •Other
• •Recovered from prior therapy
• •More than 7 days since prior antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and/or monamine oxidase inhibitors)
• •No concurrent antidepressants
• •No other concurrent investigational agents