Twenty patients (10 pts with recurrent malignant glioma and 10 pts with metastatic brain tumor) will be randomly assigned to receive either a phosphodiesterase-V inhibitor (vardenafil) followed by carboplatin or carboplatin alone. All patients will have tumor resection performed from 2 to 6 hours after administration of carboplatin. Using high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) or ELISA methodology, carboplatin levels will be determined from both serum and resected tumor tissue. Patients will be followed for four weeks after craniotomy for toxicity associated with the administration of carboplatin and a phosphodiesterase-V inhibitor plus carboplatin.~These data will provide quantitative measures of intratumoral carboplatin levels with and without alteration of blood/tumor barrier (BTB) permeability with vardenafil.
This is a randomized pilot study to investigate the ability of a phosphodiesterase-V inhibitor (vardenafil) to increase the concentration of systemically delivered chemotherapy, carboplatin, in patients with recurrent malignant gliomas or metastatic brain cancer. This study will also determine the toxicity and tolerability of a phosphodiesterase-V inhibitor (vardenafil) in combination with intravenous carboplatin for patients with recurrent malignant gliomas or metastatic brain cancer.