Testing Temporally Modulated Pulsed Radiation Therapy with Temozolomide in Glioblastoma (NRG-CC017)

04/15/2026

NRG Oncology recently activated the NRG-CC017 trial comparing two different types of radiation treatments combined with chemotherapy for patients with MGMT-unmethylated glioblastoma. Patients on this study will receive either standard radiotherapy or temporally modulated pulsed radiation therapy (TMPRT) combined with the chemotherapy drug, temozolomide. TMPRT delivers radiation in small pulses with short breaks in between rather than delivering the radiation to the patient all at once, which is perceived to help avoid damaging healthy cells while having a greater impact on depleting cancer cells. This trial is currently open for patient enrollment.

“Glioblastoma is a very aggressive type of brain cancer and many patients, especially older populations, only live approximately 14 months following onset of their disease. Currently, patients are treated with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy, but about 70% of these patients have a tumor type that does not respond well to this form of chemotherapy, and the radiation therapy typically causes additional issues with cognitive decline. “There is a dire need for improved treatment options for these patients that help improve overall survival without impacting quality of life,” stated Jiayi Huang, MD, from the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine and the Principal Investigator of the NRG-CC017 trial.

NRG-CC017 was designed based on early trial data that suggests the use of TMPRT could help extend overall survival of patients without decline in memory and cognitive function. This study will bring this data into a large, randomized, phase III setting to definitively determine if the use of TMPRT protects brain function and simultaneously provides survival benefit for patients.

The NRG-CC017 trial will enroll patients with MGMT-unmethylated glioblastoma and stratify them by recursive partitioning analysis class, radiation therapy fraction intent, and intent to use tumor treating fields. Following stratification, patients will be randomly assigned to receive either standard radiation with adjuvant chemotherapy or TMPRT with adjuvant chemotherapy.

The primary endpoint of this study is to determine if using TMPRT can significantly improve time to neurocognitive function failure compared to the standard radiation and chemotherapy treatment. Secondary endpoints include comparing neurocognitive function differences across time, overall survival, progression-free survival, quality of life, patient-reported cognitive outcomes, toxicity, and longitudinal changes in frailty between treatments. Additionally, researchers will be assessing if TMPRT improves time to neurocognitive function failure in a subset of patients that are 65 or older.

More information:
More on NRG-CC017 can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov
Protocol documents for NRG-CC017 are available on CTSU.

NRG-CC017 Study Overview Video for Physicians
During the 2026 Winter Meeting, we interviewed study Principal Investigator, Dr. Jiayi Huang on the NRG-CC017 study which recently activated for patient enrollment. NRG-CC017 is a randomized, phase III study comparing temporally-modulated pulsed radiation therapy versus standard radiation with temozolomide for adults with newly diagnosed MGMT-unmethylated glioblastoma. Watch the video on the NRG Oncology YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/oCYxlfXPjRQ. Special thanks to our guest interviewers, Dr. David Lee and Dr. Alexis Narvaez Rojas.