A Phase 3 interventional study of Lomustine and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Glioblastoma and Gliosarcoma, sponsored by NRG Oncology. Active, not recruiting at 420 sites in 2 countries. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 70 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-17.
Sponsored by NRG Oncology · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment
This phase III trial compares the effect of adding lomustine to standard chemotherapy with temozolomide and radiation therapy versus temozolomide and radiation therapy alone in shrinking or stabilizing newly diagnosed MGMT methylated glioblastoma. MGMT methylated tumors are more likely to respond to temozolomide chemotherapy. Temozolomide is in a class of medications called alkylating agents. It works by damaging the cell's DNA and may kill tumor cells and slow down or stop tumor growth. Lomustine is a chemotherapy drug and in a class of medications called alkylating agents. It damages the cell's DNA and may kill tumor cells. Radiation therapy uses high energy x-ray photons to kill tumor cells and shrink tumors. Adding lomustine to standard chemotherapy with temozolomide and radiation therapy may shrink or stabilize glioblastoma.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
I. To determine if the regimen with the two alkylating agents temozolomide and lomustine with radiotherapy (RT) significantly prolongs overall survival (OS) versus (vs.) standard chemoradiotherapy with temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM) with MGMT promoter methylation.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
I. To determine if the regimen with the two alkylating agents temozolomide and lomustine with radiotherapy (RT) significantly prolongs progression-free survival (PFS) vs. standard chemoradiotherapy with temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed GBM with MGMT promoter methylation.
II. To compare the two different chemotherapy regimens on patient-reported outcomes (PROs), as measured by the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory - Brain Tumor (MDASI-BT) in patients with newly diagnosed GBM with MGMT promoter methylation.
III. To determine if the regimen with the two alkylating agents temozolomide and lomustine with radiotherapy (RT) is associated with inferior short-term change in PROs as measured by MDASI-BT vs. standard chemoradiotherapy with temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed GBM with MGMT promoter methylation.
IV. To assess toxicity in the two different chemotherapy regimens.
EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:
I. To assess the association between absolute lymphocyte counts and outcomes. II. To assess the association between CD4+ lymphocyte counts and outcomes. III. To compare the two different chemotherapy regimens in terms of long-term PROs as measured by MDASI-BT at years 1 and 2.
OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 arms.
ARM I: Patients undergo radiation therapy 5 days per week and receive temozolomide orally (PO) once daily (QD) for 6 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients then receive temozolomide PO QD on days 1-5 of each cycle. Treatment repeats every 28 days for 6 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) throughout the trial.
ARM II: Patients undergo radiation therapy 5 days per week for 6 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also receive lomustine PO on day 1 of each cycle and temozolomide PO QD on days 2-6 of each cycle. Treatment repeats every 42 days for 6 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo MRI throughout the trial.
After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for year 1, every 4 months for year 2, and then every 6 months thereafter.
2,132 studies on the registry are indexed under Glioblastoma; 464 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 265 is above the median of 36 across 1,753 interventional studies indexed under Glioblastoma.
Browse Glioblastoma studies →NRG Oncology is the lead sponsor of 72 studies on the registry; 25 are open to participants now.
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Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
STEP 2 REGISTRATION: MGMT promoter with methylation confirmed by central pathology review. Note: Patients with tissue that is insufficient or inadequate for analysis, fails MGMT testing, or has indeterminate or unmethylated MGMT promoter are excluded
STEP 2 REGISTRATION: For patients with evidence of chronic virus (HBV) infection, the HBV viral load must be undetectable on suppressive therapy, if indicated
STEP 2 REGISTRATION: For patients with a history of virus (HCV) infection must have been treated and cured. For patients with HCV infection who are currently on treatment, they are eligible if they have an undetectable HCV viral load
STEP 2 REGISTRATION: Negative serum or urine pregnancy test (in persons of childbearing potential) within 14 days prior to step 2 registration
Exclusion Criteria:
STEP 2 REGISTRATION: Prior therapy for tumor except for resection or prior laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT). For example, prior chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or targeted therapy for GBM or lower grade glioma is disallowed (including but not limited to temozolomide, lomustine, bevacizumab, any viral therapy, ipilimumab or other antibody, PD-1 antibody, CD-137 agonist, 0 antibody, PDL-1 or 2 antibody, vaccine therapy, polio or similar viral injection as treatment for the tumor, and/or any other antibody or drug specifically targeting T-cell co-stimulation or immune checkpoint pathways) as is Gliadel wafer, radiotherapy, radiosurgery, vaccine or other immunotherapy, brachytherapy, or convection enhanced delivery
STEP 2 REGISTRATION: Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.
Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.
PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.
The number of CD4 cells, a type of white blood cell, in a given amount of blood. It is used to follow how well the immune system is doing in HIV.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.
Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.
Biopsy and archival tissue
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Karnofsky performance status (KPS)
A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.
Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis C tests
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Postmenopausal
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
PD-1, PD-L1 and checkpoint inhibitors
PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.
PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
CD4 count
The number of CD4 cells, a type of white blood cell, in a given amount of blood. It is used to follow how well the immune system is doing in HIV.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Leptomeningeal disease
Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.
Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients undergo radiation therapy 5 days per week and receive temozolomide PO QD for 6 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients then receive temozolomide PO QD on days 1-5 of each cycle. Treatment repeats every 28 days for 6 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo MRI throughout the trial.
Procedure: Magnetic Resonance Imaging · Radiation: Photon Beam Radiation Therapy · Other: Questionnaire Administration · Drug: Temozolomide
Patients undergo radiation therapy 5 days per week for 6 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also receive lomustine PO on day 1 of each cycle and temozolomide PO QD on days 2-6 of each cycle. Treatment repeats every 42 days for 6 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo MRI throughout the trial.
Drug: Lomustine · Procedure: Magnetic Resonance Imaging · Radiation: Photon Beam Radiation Therapy · Other: Questionnaire Administration · Drug: Temozolomide
Given PO
Also known as: 1-(2-Chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea, 1-Nitrosourea, 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-, Belustin, Belustine, CCNU, Cecenu, CeeNU, Chloroethylcyclohexylnitrosourea, Citostal, Gleostine, Lomeblastin, Lomustinum, Lucostin, Lucostine, N-(2-Chloroethyl)-N'-cyclohexyl-N-nitrosourea, Prava, RB-1509, WR-139017
Undergo MRI
Also known as: Magnetic Resonance, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetic resonance imaging (procedure), Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan, Medical Imaging, Magnetic Resonance / Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, MR, MR Imaging, MRI, MRI Scan, MRIs, NMR Imaging, NMRI, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, sMRI, Structural MRI
Undergo radiation therapy
Also known as: External beam radiation therapy using photons (procedure), Photon, Photon EBRT, Photon External Beam Radiotherapy, PHOTON Therapy, Radiation, Photon Beam
Ancillary studies
Given PO
Also known as: CCRG-81045, Gliotem, Imidazo[5,1-d]-1,2,3,5-tetrazine-8-carboxamide, 3, 4-dihydro-3-methyl-4-oxo-, M & B 39831, M and B 39831, Methazolastone, RP-46161, SCH 52365, Temcad, Temizole, Temodal, Temodar, Temomedac, TMZ
Overall survival
The Kaplan-Meier method will be used to estimate survival distribution for each treatment arm.
Time frame: From randomization to death due to any cause, assessed up to 5 years from randomization
Progression free survival (PFS)
Analysis will consist of estimation of the PFS distribution of each treatment arm via the Kaplan-Meier method and a stratified log-rank test. Additional analyses may consist of estimating the hazard ratio via the Cox proportional hazards model, accounting for other prognostic covariates (and evaluating whether the proportional hazards assumption holds or whether any treatment effect is notably time-varying), and evaluating for potential treatment by prognostic covariate interactions.
Time frame: From randomization to disease progression or death due to any cause, whichever occurs first, assessed up to 5 years from randomization
Incidence of adverse events
Adverse events (AEs) will be graded according to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 5.0. Comprehensive summaries of all AEs by treatment arm will be generated and examined.
Time frame: Up to 5 years from randomization
Patient reported outcomes
Measured by the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory - Brain Tumor (MDASI-BT) in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma with MGMT promoter methylation. Short-term" and "long-term" MDASI-BT, will be evaluated separately.
Time frame: Up to 5 years from randomization
Absolute lymphocyte counts
Will assess the association between absolute lymphocyte counts and outcomes.
Time frame: Up to 5 years from randomization
CD4+ lymphocyte counts
Will assess the association between absolute lymphocyte counts and outcomes.
Time frame: Up to 5 years from randomization
Estimation of the primary outcome treatment effect by sex
Estimates of treatment effect and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) will be provided.
Time frame: Up to 5 years from randomization
Estimation of the primary outcome treatment effect by race
Estimates of treatment effect and the corresponding 95% CIs will be provided.
Time frame: Up to 5 years from randomization
Estimation of the primary outcome treatment effect by ethnicity
Estimates of treatment effect and the corresponding 95% CIs will be provided.
Time frame: Up to 5 years from randomization
Showing the first 100 of 420 sites across 2 countries. Choose a country and city above to see the rest.
Plan to share: Yes — NCI is committed to sharing data in accordance with NIH policy. For more details on how clinical trial data is shared, access the link to the NIH data sharing policy page.
Data sharing details ↗ · grants.nih.gov
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Aug 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Studies of the drug tested here: Lomustine
NRG Oncology