Sunitinib in Treating Patients With Recurrent Malignant Gliomas

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To assess the efficacy of sunitinib malate in patients with recurrent malignant gliomas as measured by 6-month progression-free survival. II. To determine the lower of the dose of sunitinib malate in patients receiving enzyme-inducing anti-convulsants that would achieve similar serum drug and metabolite concentrations as that in patients not receiving enzyme-inducing anticonvulsants or the maximum tolerated dose in the same population. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To examine the toxicity and safety of sunitinib malate in patients with the above noted tumors. II. To evaluate tumor responses in the stated patients. III. To evaluate progression-free and overall survival in the stated patients. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to use of enzyme-inducing anticonvulsants (EIAC) (yes vs no). STRATUM 1 (non-EIAC): Patients receive oral sunitinib malate once daily for 4 consecutive weeks followed by 2 weeks of rest. STRATUM 2 (EIAC \& OSU patients only): Patients receive oral sunitinib malate as in stratum 1. Patients receive escalating doses of oral sunitinib malate until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. Patients undergo blood sample collection periodically for pharmacokinetic studies. Samples are analyzed for plasma concentrations of sunitinib malate via LC/MS/MS method. In both strata, treatment repeats every 6 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.