RATIONALE: Armodafinil may help relieve fatigue and improve quality of life in patients with cancer receiving radiation therapy to the brain.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying how well armodafinil works in treating fatigue caused by radiation therapy in patients with primary brain tumors.

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• To estimate study accrual, adherence, retention, and participation of patients with primary brain tumors undergoing partial- or whole-brain radiotherapy who are randomized to receive armodafinil or placebo.
• To estimate the variability of fatigue, quality of life, and neurocognitive function in these patients.

Secondary

• To obtain a preliminary estimate of the effect of armodafinil on fatigue as measured by the fatigue subscale of the FACIT-F and the Brief Fatigue Inventory.
• To estimate the rates of toxicity and adverse events associated with armodafinil.
• To obtain preliminary estimates of the effect of armodafinil on sleepiness as measured by the Epworth Sleep Scale; overall quality of life and brain-specific quality of life as measured by the FACT-G with the brain subscale; and cognitive function as measured by a comprehensive Wake Forest Cognitive Function Battery.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to therapy (radiotherapy alone vs radiotherapy and chemotherapy) and Karnofsky performance status (60-80% vs 90-100%). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 arms.

• Arm I: Patients receive oral armodafinil once daily beginning no later than the fifth fraction of brain radiotherapy and continuing for 9-11 weeks in the absence of unacceptable toxicity.
• Arm II: Patients receive oral placebo once daily beginning no later than the fifth fraction of brain radiotherapy and continuing for 9-11 weeks in the absence of unacceptable toxicity.

Patients complete questionnaires assessing fatigue, quality of life, and neurocognitive function at baseline and periodically during study.

Inclusion Criteria

• Histologically confirmed primary brain tumor, including any of the following:

  • Glioblastoma multiforme
  • Anaplastic astrocytoma
  • Anaplastic oligodendroglioma
  • Anaplastic mixed oligoastrocytoma
  • Low-grade glioma
  • Meningioma
  • Ependymoma
  • Other primary brain tumor histologies

• Planning to undergo external-beam cranial radiotherapy (partial- or whole-brain radiotherapy) meeting all of the following criteria:

  • Total dose ≥ 4,500 cGy
  • Total number of fractions ≥ 25 fractions
  • Dose per fraction ≥ 150 cGy

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Karnofsky performance status 60-100%

• Hemoglobin ≥ 10.0 g/dL (erythropoietin or transfusion allowed for symptomatically anemic patients with a hemoglobin < 10 g/dL)

• Creatinine ≤ 2 mg/dL

• Total bilirubin ≤ 2 times upper limit of normal (ULN)

• SGOT and SGPT ≤ 3 times ULN

• Not pregnant or nursing

• Negative pregnancy test

• Sexually active women of childbearing potential must use a reliable method of birth control

  • It is recommended that patients use non-hormonal contraceptives, in addition to or in place of hormonal contraceptives, during and for one month following treatment with armodafinil

• Prior malignancies allowed

Exclusion Criteria:

• No baseline headaches (i.e., headaches occurring in the week before baseline assessment) of grade 4 severity (defined as severe and disabling headaches, requiring analgesics, and interfering with and preventing function or activities of daily living)

• No concurrent uncontrolled illness that may cause fatigue; interfere with drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, or excretion; or limit compliance with study requirements including, but not limited to, any of the following:

  • Ongoing or active infection
  • Chronic renal insufficiency
  • Psychiatric illness (psychosis, psychotic disorder, history of suicide attempt, or actively suicidal)
  • Extreme social situations (e.g., transportation issues that would preclude study compliance)

• Patients with a history of cardiac issues (symptomatic congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmia) should not use armodafinil as it may cause chest pain, palpitations, dyspnea, and transient ischemic T-wave changes on ECG

• No history of allergic reaction attributed to modafinil or armodafinil

• No anticipated or planned excessive consumption of coffee, tea, and/or caffeine-containing beverages averaging > 600 mg of caffeine/day (i.e., approximately 6 cups of coffee/day, 12 cups of hot tea/day, or 12 cans of cola/day)

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics

• No prior fractionated external-beam cranial radiotherapy

• More than 30 days since prior monoamine oxidate inhibitors or investigational drugs

• More than 2 weeks since prior and no concurrent modafinil (Provigil), donepezil (Aricept), memantine hydrochloride (Namenda), methylphenidate (Ritalin), dextroamphetamine-amphetamine (Adderall), ginkgo biloba, or any other cognitive function-enhancing drugs

• At least 4 weeks since prior and no concurrent interstitial or intracavitary chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy or stereotactic radiosurgery (i.e., Gamma Knife, Linac, or Cyberknife)

• No concurrent erythropoietin, transfusion, or iron therapy (unless patient is symptomatically anemic with hemoglobin < 10 g/dL)

• Concurrent chemotherapy allowed

• Concurrent hormonal therapy for other malignancies allowed

  • No concurrent non-hormonal therapy (e.g., Herceptin and other targeted agents), or cytotoxic chemotherapy

• No concurrent clopidogrel bisulfate (Plavix)

All randomized participants.

3 months

The denominator for adverse events in each arm is the number of participants who provided post-treatment data.