ArticleJournal of neurology2015
Haematological toxicity of Valproic acid compared to Levetiracetam in patients with glioblastoma multiforme undergoing concomitant radio-chemotherapy: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in Journal of neurology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of levetiracetam in preventing postoperative seizures in adult patients with brain tumors: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Management of epilepsy in brain tumors.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2019Guideline
- Levetiracetam and valproic acid in glioma: antiseizure and potential antineoplastic effects.Future oncology (London, England) · 2025Review
- Valproic acid as a radio-sensitizer in glioma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Neuro-oncology practice · 2023Article
- Perioperative levetiracetam for seizure prophylaxis in seizure-naive brain tumor patients with focus on neurocognitive functioning.BMC neurology · 2022Article
- Adjuvant chemotherapy after severe myelotoxicity during chemoradiation phase in malignant gliomas. Is it feasibile? Results from AINO study (Italian Association for Neuro-Oncology).Journal of neurology · 2021Article
- Long-lasting Thrombocytopenia after Transient Pancytopenia Induced by Short-Term Concomitant Radiotherapy and Temozolomide.European journal of case reports in internal medicine · 2020Article
- Next Generation Sequencing and Machine Learning Technologies Are Painting the Epigenetic Portrait of Glioblastoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2020Review
- Levetiracetam for epilepsy: an evidence map of efficacy, safety and economic profiles.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2019Article
- Seizures and cancer: drug interactions of anticonvulsants with chemotherapeutic agents, tyrosine kinase inhibitors and glucocorticoids.Neuro-oncology practice · 2016Review
- Does the choice of antiepileptic drug affect survival in glioblastoma patients?Journal of neuro-oncology · 2016Article
- Seizures and gliomas--towards a single therapeutic approach.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2016Review
- Epilepsy and brain tumors.Handbook of clinical neurology · 2016Review
- What is New in the Management of Epilepsy in Gliomas?Current treatment options in neurology · 2015Article
- Seizures in oligodendroglial tumors.CNS oncology · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and symptomatic seizures are in need of a sufficient antiepileptic treatment. Haematological toxicity is a limiting side effect of both, first line radio-chemotherapy with temozolomide (TMZ) and co-medication with antiepileptic drugs. Valproic acid (VPA) and levetiracetam (LEV) are considered favourable agents in brain tumor patients with seizures, but are commonly reported to induce haematological side effects on their own. We hypothesized, that antiepileptic treatment with these agents has no increased impact on haematological side effects during radio-chemotherapy in the first line setting. We included 104 patients from two neuro-oncologic centres with GBM and standard radio-chemotherapy in a retrospective cohort study. Patients were divided according to their antiepileptic treatment with either VPA, LEV or without antiepileptic drug therapy (control group). Declines in haemoglobin levels and absolute blood cell counts for neutrophil granulocytes, lymphocytes and thrombocytes were analyzed twice during concomitant and once during adjuvant phase. A comparison between the examined groups was performed, using a linear mixed model. Neutrophil granulocytes, lymphocytes and thrombocytes significantly decreased over time in all three groups (all p < 0.012), but there was no significant difference between the compared groups. A significant decline in haemoglobin was observed in the LEV treated group (p = 0.044), but did not differ between the compared groups. As a novel finding, this study demonstrates that co-medication either with VPA or LEV in GBM patients undergoing first line radio-chemotherapy with TMZ has no additional impact on medium-term haematological toxicity.
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