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Brain Tumor News Articles About Temodar or Temozolomide

[07/26/2021] COMBINATION OF TUMOR TREATING FIELDS (TTFIELDS) WITH LOMUSTINE (CCNU) AND TEMOZOLOMIDE (TMZ) IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED GLIOBLASTOMA (GBM) PATIENTS - A BI-CENTRIC ANALYSIS ( Note - this is an older article but it just came up again in my news feed and is worth repeating!) This combination, tested in a small group of newly diagnosed Glioblastoma patients, resulted in an astounding Progression Free Survival rate of 20 months, and the median overall survival was not yet reached. This compares with historical results of 7.2 months PFS for Temodar and Optune.
[06/25/2021] Adjuvant - Not Concurrent - Temozolomide Upped Overall Survival in 1p/19q Non-Co-Deleted Anaplastic Glioma: Commentary on the CATNON Trial This is a confusing study. It goes against what we thought was true about using temozolomide. This study was in anaplastic astrocytomas, and showed that there is very little benefit in using temozolomide at the same time as radiation but there is a large benefit using it after radiation. However, that only applies to certain subgroups. In some subgroups of patients temozolomide did not help at all. We will be having a webinar next month on a new test that should simplify this and better predict which patients would benefit from Temozolomide or other treatments.
[06/24/2021] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance Program is now open! Our copay assistance program is now open. If you think you may need help, apply. Never be shy or embarrassed to ask for help. We went through this and understand the financial pressures that a malignant brain tumor can cause, even if you were OK financially before. We are here to take some of the stress off of you and try to make the process easy. If you have questions or any trouble with the application, contact us by using the 'Contact Us' link on the website or call us at 888-295-4740. If you do use the program, please fill out the anonymous survey on the website. We use that to make the program better and to help raise funds for the program.
[06/09/2021] Combination chemotherapy versus temozolomide for patients with methylated MGMT (m-MGMT) glioblastoma: results of computational biological modeling to predict the magnitude of treatment benefit Very interesting concept. They did a mathematical model of numerous biomarkers to try to figure out which is best for an individual patient with newly diagnosed, methylated MGMT Glioblastoma: Temozolomide, Lomustine or the combination of the 2. In general the combination was best for most but there are cases where one or the other drug alone was better than the combination. Theoretically, they could predict which path to take, improving the effects of chemotherapy, and in some cases, minimizing unneeded side effects. It has to be tested in patients to make sure it works, but this is the type of research we need. Figure out why and in which patients treatments work instead of blindly using the same treatments on everyone.
[05/20/2021] A randomized phase II trial of veliparib, radiotherapy and temozolomide in patients with unmethylated MGMT glioblastoma: the VERTU study Unfrotunately, this trial failed to show any improvement by adding a Parp inhibitor to the standard treatment for MGMT Unmethylated Glioblastoma. It highlights the need to develop new treatments, as survival was only 1 year in both the experimental group and the standard of care group.
[05/09/2021] Temozolomide chronotherapy in patients with glioblastoma: a retrospective single-institute study This is another small study (we wrote about a similar study last year with the same results) which shows that for MGMT methylated patients, taking Temodar in the morning works better than at night. The difference is about a 6 month average survival increase if you take it in the morning compared to taking it in the evening. The level of evidence needed to prove it is not yet there but with 2 studies showing the same result, I feel it is worth taking the Temodar in the morning. Traditionally it is given in the evening so you sleep through the nausea it causes but now there are good anti nausea drugs that can avoid that problem. If you still get nausea, talk to your doctor and try other anti nausea drugs.
[04/05/2021] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance Program is now open! We are only able to approve 20 grants this time so it might go really fast and might close quickly. Check the website for the current status.
[01/29/2021] Mebendazole and temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed high-grade gliomas: results of a phase 1 clinical trial It is difficult to interpret the results because there was a mix of anaplastic astrocytoma and glioblastoma, and they did not disclose the MGMT methylation status, the IDH status ir if they patients used Optune or any other treatment. However, they have shown that adding Mebendazole is safe, and it appears that the outcome is a little better than Temozolomide alone. This is a pretty popular drug for Glioblastoma patients to take. It is part of the Care Oncology Protocol, which also adds 3 other repurposed approved drugs. The Care Oncology protocol has some imnpressive data behind it.
[01/22/2021] The Role of Temozolomide in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Wild-Type IDH, Unmethylated MGMTp Glioblastoma During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This can be practice changing. We previously reported that Temozolomide did not help patients with Glioblastoma that have unmethylated MGMT and the Wild Type IDK. This confirms it, and in the opinion of the authors, makes it Ok to not use Temozolomide on patients in this group, and try something else. We have always been afraid of trying this because there was a small "tail" of survivors in the trials of patients with unmethylated MGMT who did do well with Temozolomide. This article explains that the old test was not specific enough, and says they now break down the MGMT result into 3 groups, highly methylated, where Temozolomide has a good chance of helping, low (truly) unmethylated which has no chance of Temozolomide helping, and the intermediate range where there may be a small benefit. They say that those in the intermediate group were labelled as unmethylated and they account for those responders in the old trials.
[01/01/2021] Musella Foundation awards three brain tumor research grants and reopens the brain tumor treatments copayment assistance program!
Starting the new year out right: Musella Foundation awards three brain tumor research grants and reopens the brain tumor treatments copayment assistance program!
Happy New Year!
[12/31/2020] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance Program is now open! If you think you may need assistance paying for these covered treatments, apply. Do not feel awkward asking for help. One of our main objectives is to help reduce the stress in your life! The other one is to speed up the search for the cure!
[12/15/2020] Novocure Announces National Reimbursement in Switzerland for Optune® in Combination With Temozolomide for the Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Optune is now available to patient in Switzerland! Better late than never. It was approved here in the USA about 9 years ago.
[12/14/2020] Musella Foundation awards another brain tumor research grant! This trial is worth considering for patients with newly diagnosed Glioblastoma - if they happen to live in the NY City area. Enrollment must begin before radiation starts.
[10/29/2020] Alpha-type-1 Polarized Dendritic Cell-based Vaccination in Newly Diagnosed High-grade Glioma: A Phase II Clinical Trial This is a small study but had remarkable results.1/3 of Glioblastoma patients lived at least 6 years.
[10/15/2020] Musella Foundation Copayment Assistance Program Closed to New patients The program opens and closes as we have funding. In the 2 weeks that we were open, we awarded $150,000 in grants to 30 patients to help them get access to treatments.
[09/29/2020] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance Program is now open! If you think you may need assistance paying for these covered treatments, apply. Do not feel awkward asking for help. One of our main objectives is to help reduce the stress in your life! The other one is to speed up the search for the cure!
[06/29/2020] A phase I/II study of veliparib (ABT-888) with radiation and temozolomide in newly diagnosed diffuse pontine glioma: a Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium study Unfortunately, this trial was not a success. I was hoping it would work - this drug did well with ovarian cancer. It is not over yet - it may be worth testing with other combinations.
[05/29/2020] Temozolomide Antagonizes Oncolytic Immunovirotherapy in Glioblastoma This shows the importance of the timing and sequencing of treatments - and how we can not rely on just test tube results.
[05/29/2020] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance program is running low on funding This program is a life saver. I started it because both of my family members who had glioblastomas also had problems with the cost of their treatments. The program is funded by donations directed to this program and does NOT take anything away from the money we raise for brain tumor research. That is a seperate fund. When making a donation, you can tell us which fund to apply your donation to and if you want to just fund research, 100% of your donation will go to brain tumor research! You can make donations at https://virtualtrials.com/donate
[05/29/2020] Al Musella`s ASCO Highlights Part 1 Here are my thoughts on the most important abstacts so far. This is a first pass - I may add to this on our forum!
Let's discuss them in our forum - did I miss any? Let me know. Go to https://forum.virtualtrials.org/ to discuss these!
[04/30/2020] Pharmacokinetics, Safety and Tolerability of Olaparib and Temozolomide for Recurrent Glioblastoma: Results of the Phase I OPARATIC Trial There are 2 important points from this study: 1. They tested a rat model to see if olaparib can cross the blood brain barrier. This is a standard test that is used for most drugs. They found that this drug does not cross the blood brain barrier in rats. Then they tested in people by giving the drug before a surgery and testing the tumor sample removed and found that 100% of the time it does cross the blood brain barrier and gets into the human brain. This shows that we really can't trust the mouse models for BBB penetration and we need these human tests. 2. Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor (which is approved for other types of cancer so it is readily available off label) and they found that in the test tube it acts as a radiation sensitizer at the concentrations they found in the human testing of tumor samples. They report 36% of patients with recurrent glioblastoma were progression free at 6 months, which shows it has some effect and needs to be studied further to see how best to use it!
[04/25/2020] A Phase II Randomized, Multicenter, Open-Label Trial of Continuing Adjuvant Temozolomide Beyond Six Cycles in Patients With Glioblastoma (GEINO 14-01) As far as I know this is the first well designed trial to test if 6 or 12 months of Temodar is better. They said 6 months is better. The outcome is the same but the side effects are significantly worse in the 12 month group. There have been previous reports saying the opposite but they were poorly designed retrospective studies that did not take into account people who stopped at 6 months did so because they weren't doing as well those who chose to continue to 12 months. The current study took people doing well at the end of the 6 months and randomized them so half got 6 additional months and half stopped at 6 months.
[04/23/2020] Reinforcement Learning for Optimal Scheduling of Glioblastoma Treatment With Temozolomide This article looks at alternate dosing schedules for Temozolomide. They think an every other day schedule might be better than the standard that they use in their country (which is different than what is standard here in the USA). This is only a computer modeling and has not been tried in people yet. I like to see research on using our existing treatments better. This should be tested in lab animals first, then if successful, a human trial.
[04/06/2020] Stereotactic Radiotherapy in Recurrent Glioblastoma: A Valid Salvage Treatment Option. This is a small study from Turkey which shows that stereotactic radiosurgery is safe and well tolerated and may improve the progression free survival time as well as overall survival. It is not randomized and is small so it needs to be validated but this is another piece of evidence showing that we should consider stereotactic radiosurgery at the time of recurrence. Stereotactic radiosurgery is a form of radiation therapy that is focused on a target. It can be used even after the maximum dose of standard radiation. There are a few tools that can be used to do it. The one mentioned in the article is Cyberknife but this should apply to all of the tools that can perform fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery
[04/05/2020] Brain Tumor Patients and the COVID-19 Crisis This is an excellent presentation. I learned a few things I did not know before. I do not think I have ever seen any information on this topic ever before. If you have brain cancer or any other type of cancer, this is a must view.
[04/05/2020] Musella Foundation Copayment Assistance Program now open to New (and Renewal) Patients! Our copay assistance program is now open, but it might close quickly, so if you think you could use help with your costs for the covered treatments, apply. Never feel bad about asking for help. That is what we are here for. In these times of the outbreak, money and access to treatments becomes harder. For the duration of the outbreak, we may relax, on a case by case basis, the maximum family income criteria for those hard hit. If you exceed the maximum family income, contact us by phone or email (the contact info is on the website) and describe your situation before applying.
[04/02/2020] Initial experience with scalp sparing radiation with concurrent temozolomide and tumor treatment fields (SPARE) for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. This shows that using Optune during radiation is safe. They were able to complete radiation on all 10 patients without removing the arrays. Early results look promising but too small of a study and too early to tell how well it works.
[03/14/2020] First-line Bevacizumab Contributes to Survival Improvement in Glioblastoma Patients Complementary to Temozolomide This is a controversial area. Some prior studies on GBM said there was an improvement in progression free survival with Bevacizumab (Avastin) but no improvement in overall survival. This study says there is an improvement with adding Avastin to the standard Temodar, and that benefit persists even if the MGMT is unmethylated. This opens another option for unmethylated MGMT patients. However, I would like to see more data as there are too many conflicting reports.
[03/14/2020] Commentary: Lomustine-temozolomide combination therapy versus standard temozolomide therapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma with methylated MGMT promoter (CeTeG/NOA-09): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial Interesting read. There was a trial reported last year that adding Lomustine to the standard therapy for newly diagnosed MGMT methylated GBM patients significantly increased the overal survival rate, from 31.4 months to 48.1 months. This article talks about all fo the possible problems with the original article. Not sure what to make of this - let's discuss it in our forum.
[02/12/2020] First-line bevacizumab contributes to survival improvement in glioblastoma patients complementary to temozolomide. This reports a pretty big improvement in overall survival when using Avastin with Temodar as first line therapy. There are other reports that there is no survival benefit. It is hard to prove one way or the other if Avastin (or any new treatment really) has a survival benefit. The trials that said there was no (or small) benefit to overall survival did show a benefit in progression free survival and they were larger and randomized - which is usually more trusted, but all of these studies had other problems such as most patients had other treatments that could confound the results. In the randomized trial, many patients in the control group crossed over to using Avastin after progression, or had more surgery or more radiation. Too many variables. The only way to really tell is to follow all patients in a registry so we have large numbers of patients and analyze the effects of each subsequent or concurrent therapy!
[02/05/2020] Musella Foundation Copayment Assistance Program Closed to New patient The program opens and closes as we have funding.
[02/03/2020] Deleterious impact of a generic temozolomide formulation compared with brand-name product on the kinetic of platelet concentration and survival in newly diagnosed glioblastoma. This study says that of GBM patients using concurrent radiation and Temodar, 3% developed serious thrombocyopenia. In the Temodar package insert, it was reported that about 4% for adults, and 58% for kids have problems with platelets. This abstract did not mention the ages of the patients but the article said they were all adults. 19.6% that used the generic had thrombocytopenia. Big difference. From this it is hard to tell which is better. I doubt there is a differencem but if there is and the generic causes more thrombocytopenia, the next question is which one worked better. More side effects might mean more potency but also might mean worse quality control. I would like to take a quick survey of the readers. If you have ever used Temodar or the generic, please fill out this quick 3 question survey:
[01/21/2020] Novocure Announces National Reimbursement in Israel for Optune® in Combination with Temozolomide for the Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Good news for brain tumor patients in Israel - Optune is now covered by your national health insurance!
[01/09/2020] Survival analysis of patients with glioblastoma treated by long-term administration of temozolomide. This is the reason why we like to see prospective trials. In this retrospective study, they looked at people who used Temodar for 6 months or less versus people who received more than 6 months of Temodar. The progression free survival was a little better but the overall survival was more than double (47 vs 20 months) in the long term group vs. the short term group. That would be very impressive except they did not give one group 6 months of Temodar and the other group more than 6. They just looked back to see how long patients used it. It is possible that the patients who used it longer were the ones in good shape and who were responding to it and the ones who stopped at or before 6 months did so because they were having problems, in which case you would expect the group doing well to live longer than the group not doing well.
[01/08/2020] Identification of a transient state during the acquisition of temozolomide resistance in glioblastoma. I love this type of research. They looked at how Temozolomide effects tumor cells over time. We already knew most GBM cells will become resistent to Temozolomide eventually, but they identified a stage that the cells go through where they change to slow growing and change shape. They identified a drug which interferes with the cell. Sounds like it is worth a try in clinical trials.
[01/04/2020] Cost-effectiveness analysis of the addition of bevacizumab to temozolomide therapy for the treatment of unresected glioblastoma. This is one of the biggest problems we have - the high cost of treatments. This analysis found a small benefit to adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to Temodar for people with inoperable Glioblastomas. However, because of the high cost of the drug, it was determined that is not cost effective. They set the acceptability bar at $26,500 to add 1 year of life. This treatment worked out to $171,638 for each year of life added. Not even close. This is a societal problem. I do not blame the drug companies, as the cost to develop a drug under our system is so high that to recoup their investment, the prices have to be high. Without high prices, there would not be new drugs getting approved. We need to change the system so that any researcher with a good idea could afford to bring a drug through the system to get approval - which not only will drastically lower the cost of new drugs but gives us a wider range of treatments to use.
[01/04/2020] Complete radiological response following subtotal resection in three glioblastoma patients under treatment with Tumor Treating Fields. This is a relatively small trial but shows a huge effect supporting the use of Optune for Glioblastoma. In the big EF-14 phase 3 trial for newly diagnosed glioblastoma, the trial was stopped at the first interim analysis because it was obvious the Optune arm was doing so much better than the control group that it was unethical to continue withholding Optune from newly diagnosed patients. The people running this study did not do that - they allowed it to go on for 5 years - knowing that they were withholding the best treatment. Doesn't sound fair to me.
[12/16/2019] Tumour Treating Fields (TTFields) in combination with lomustine and temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. There was a high chance of toxcicity - but the results look pretty good. Might be worth trying to add lomustine to the standard of temodar and optune.
[11/18/2019] Extensive brainstem infiltration, not mass effect, is a common feature of end-stage cerebral glioblastomas. Fascinating. Important finding - looking at how the current treatments change the natural course of the disease. This opens the door to new ways to treat GBMs. Prevent the infiltration.
[10/22/2019] Donate or request expensive medicines! We frequently get asked if we can accept unopened Temodar and until now had to say no! Our copay assistance program helps only if you have insurance. For those without insurance, we can't help but this place may be able to help!
[09/30/2019] Optune Open House From our good friends at Novocure! These Open Houses are valuable to anyone who has a brain tumor or knows someone with a brain tumor!
[08/15/2019] Attend an Optune Open House From our friends at Novocure. These open houses are fun and informative! Worth attending for anyone who has or knows someone with a gbm. Most are live but there are webinar versions in there for people not near a live site!
[07/29/2019] Long-term survival in patients with recurrent glioblastoma treated with bevacizumab: a multicentric retrospective study. This shows that a small % of patients go on to become long term survivors using Avastin. The big trials for Avastin "failed" just like some of the immunotherapy trials "failed" because they look at the median patient to determine how well the treatments do. (Avastin showed an increase in the median progression free survival but not median overall survival). These treatments do not help the majority of patients, but they do help a minority of patients. The statistics we use does not recognize the importance of the tail of the long term survivors. Even though each one alone only gives a small % of long term survivors, there is hope that the right combination of these could help the majority of patients become long term survivors.
[07/16/2019] Attend an Optune Open House. From our friends at Novocure!
[06/10/2019] Attend an Optune Open House. These meeting are to learn about Optune and meet people who are using it! One of them can be done online, the rest are real wolrd. Very much worth attending if you have a GBM or know someone who has one!
[05/16/2019] Optune Open Houses These meetings are for anyone who uses or is thinking of using Optune. Most of these are live but there are some broadcast on the web!
[04/29/2019] The efficacy of a coordinated pharmacological blockade in glioblastoma stem cells with nine repurposed drugs using the CUSP9 strategy. I am a fan of the CUSP 9 protocol. Might be worth considering adding it to whatever else your plan is.
[04/29/2019] Optune Open House Here is an updated list of the Optune Open Houses. These meetings are interesting and a lot of fun for everyone who has a brain tumor.
[04/09/2019] Optune Open Houses
This is a chance to learn about Optune - or for those of you using it - to meet others using it and swap tips and ask the experts any questions you have! Most are live but the last one is a webinar.
[03/14/2019] Optune Open Houses
These are informative and fun meetings. Some of them are webinars available online for those not close to a live meeting. All are free. They are sponsored by Novocure and the Musella Foundation is not involved - I am just letting you know about them because they are important!
[03/10/2019] Triple-drug Therapy With Bevacizumab, Irinotecan, and Temozolomide Plus Tumor Treating Fields for Recurrent Glioblastoma: A Retrospective Study. This looks good for recurrent GBM. It is too small of a study to tell for sure but the survivals compare very well to historical survivals. We need to follow all patients who use Optune to see which combinations are the best, and this opens the door for more research on using Optune for recurrent GBM.
[03/09/2019] Optune Open House These are nice meetings if you are using Optune or are considering it!
[02/22/2019] Lomustine-temozolomide combination therapy versus standard temozolomide therapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma with methylated MGMT promoter (CeTeG/NOA–09): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial
This is the results of a relatively small randomized study comparing Temodar to Temodar plus Lomustine for Newly Diagnosed GBM with MGMT methylation. Results look very good - a significant increase in overall survival - about 17 months. However, I would like to see this study repeated with a larger number of patients, and possibly include Optune use.

One problem I have is that the treatment was limited to about 6 months of therapy. Looking at the graphs, there is really no difference between the groups for the first 2 years. Only 2 patients at the end of the trial make the plots diverge. These 2 patients may have had different treatments after finishing the trial treatments or may just have been lucky.
[01/18/2019] Optune Open House, Newton, MA These are great get togethers for any brain tumor patient or anyone who knows a brain tumor patient!
[01/07/2019] Biodegradable wafers releasing Temozolomide and Carmustine for the treatment of brain cancer.
They should have done this a long time ago. I hope this becomes available for patients soon. The delivery method should be approved separately from the drugs used - so we can mix and match drugs based on a patients' genetic profile.
[12/03/2018] Functional Biological Activity of Sorafenib as a Tumor-Treating Field Sensitizer for Glioblastoma Therapy. I am a big fan of Optune, and think almost all GBM patients should be on it. It is the best treatment currently available, but it is not good enough by itself. We need to find what to add to it so that it works for everyone. This article presents one such combination. There are hundreds of other combinations that also need to be tested and the only way we are going to find the best combination is for us to track the outcomes of every patient who uses Optune. We are now tracking patients in our virtual trial project. Go to virtualtrials.com and click on virtual trial to learn about it and join. It is free - but you need to commit to posting update monthly for as long as needed. All brain tumor patients should be participating, but especially if you are considering Optune.
[11/20/2018] SNO Highlights
SNO is an amazing meeting. Aside from all of the presentations, I got to meet and talk with many brain tumor researchers and physicians and discuss what they think are the best treatments, what is needed to advance the field, what is slowing down progress and much more.
We also were able to interact with many other brain tumor nonprofits. There was some resistance in the past to working together but I think the last barriers were recently removed and you are going to see a lot more collaboration now. We are all about collaboration. Working together we will be able to accomplish much more than any of us could individually.
[11/10/2018] The role of erlotinib and the Optune device in a patient with an epidermal growth factor receptor viii amplified glioblastoma. In the case presented, the patient had a GBM but was allergic to Temodar so they had to try something different. They tried erltinib and Optune, which has resulted in stable disease for at least 9 months after radiation. It is only 1 case but shows brilliant thinking on the part of this patient's team. They chose Optune, which is the obvious choice, but since the patient overexpressed EGFR, they also added erlotinib. More research needs to be done on such combinations of Optune and therapies personalized to the patient!
[11/08/2018] Late toxicity in long-term survivors from a phase 2 study of concurrent radiation therapy, temozolomide and valproic acid for newly diagnosed glioblastoma. Adding Valproic Acid to the standard radiation and Temodar for GBM might help a lot without adding any more long term problems.
[10/04/2018] Novocure Announces 55 Presentations at European Association of Neuro-Oncology Meeting 2018
This shows that Optune has finally hit the mainstream. 55 presentations at the major European brain tumor conference. Many of these are looking at ways to improve the outcomes, including new types of arrays, new placement of arrays for tumors lower in the skill and for pediatric patients.
[09/17/2018] Inhibition of Radiation and Temozolomide-Induced Invadopodia Activity in Glioma Cells Using FDA-Approved Drugs. I love this type of research. Invadopoia are small projections from the edges of tumnor cells that help allow them to move. Without the ability to move, the tumor is much less dangerous and more sensitive to normal treatments. This is a highly underappreciated target and they found 2 existing drugs which may target this. Of course, it is just theory now and needs to be tested but it is a promising approach!
[08/29/2018] Optune open house Seattle, WA These are always very interesting and worth going for anyone dealing with a brain tumor.
[08/27/2018] Aspirin affects tumor angiogenesis and sensitizes human glioblastoma endothelial cells to temozolomide, bevacizumab, and sunitinib impairing VEGF-related signaling. Interesting study - but it is only in the test tube. We follow Aspirin in the virtual trial but nobody has recorded it - I know many people must be taking it long term for heart protection - they just aren't recording it. If you are in the virtual trial and take long term Aspirin , please go back and post an update so we can see if it helps!
[08/23/2018] Phase II Study of Iniparib with Concurrent Chemoradiation in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma. This drug has a strange past - it did very good in early trials for breast cancer but failied in the large phase 3 trial. It seems to have lottle toxcicity and the early brain tumor trial showed good results so it is worth a try again
[08/22/2018] Estimated lifetime survival benefit of tumor treating fields and temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients This is another type of analysis of the latest Optune trial for newly diagnosed GBM. Unlike most results that are published, this is for an evaluation of the health economics where they use a mathematical model to predict how long patients will live in each arm of the trial if they were observed over the course of 15 years instead of about the 5 years covered by the trial. This reports the average survivals, not the median survivals that were already presented. The main difference is the median survival is the point at which the person at the midpoint of the trial dies. For example, if there were 500 patients, it is the point at which patient number 250 dies. This allows them to report the information in a reasonable amount of time, but it doesn't give any insight into the long tail - patients who live for a long time. The average adds up all of the survival times and divides by the number of patients. This is impossible to do when patients live for a long time, so this study is using a model to estimate it. This takes into account the long term survivors. There are a few amazing numbers presented here. IF you survive the first 2 years on Optune, you will have about a 17% chance of living to 15 years. In the temodar group, that number is 8.7%. The average life expectancy for the Optune group was 4.2 years vs. the control arm of temodar alone at 2.4 years. An increase of 1.8 years!
[07/25/2018] The prognostic improvement of add-on bevacizumab for progressive disease during concomitant temozolomide and radiation therapy in the patients with glioblastoma and anaplastic astrocytoma. This study says that for a small group of patients (we have to be careful trusting results in small groups), overall survival was doubled by adding Avastin during or right after radiation ends for gbm patients who progress through radiation.
[07/16/2018] Verapamil potentiates anti-glioblastoma efficacy of temozolomide by modulating apoptotic signaling. About 1/2 of the USA population has high blood pressure - so it may be worthwhile to consider this drug if you have a gbm, are taking Temodar and also have high blood pressure. This is a perfect combination to observe in the virtual trial!
[06/13/2018] Musella Foundation awards 7 brain tumor research grants! A big thank you to our amazing volunteers and participants in the National Walk To End Brain Tumors! These projects are going to make a difference fast!
[05/29/2018] First results on survival from a large Phase 3 clinical trial of an autologous dendritic cell vaccine in newly diagnosed glioblastoma
This article is so important that I am placing my editorial comments into the full text part of this entry so more people see it, along with a link to the full article.
[05/25/2018] Superselective intraarterial cerebral infusion of cetuximab with blood brain barrier disruption combined with Stupp Protocol for newly diagnosed glioblastoma. This is only 1 case report but it shows great results using an old drug in a new way.
[05/24/2018] Patterns of care and outcomes of chemoradiation versus radiation alone for MGMT promoter unmethylated glioblastoma. This study says that for glioblastoma patients with unmethylated MGMT, adding Temodar to radiation does not improve survival or progression free survival. This is a retrospective study that does not control for other factors, but it is interesting. It opens the door for experimenting with other treatments for newly diagnosed MGMT unmethylated patients, such as perhaps substituting Val-083 instead of Temodar.
[04/24/2018] Multicenter Phase IB Trial of Carboxyamidotriazole Orotate and Temozolomide for Recurrent and Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma and Other Anaplastic Gliomas Carboxyamidotriazole Orotate is an experimental treatment, given orally. It is made by Tactical Therapeutics. Visit their website at http://www.tacticaltherapeutics.com/cto-overview/ for details on how it works. Looks promising but too early to tell for sure.
[04/19/2018] A Shock to the System: Tumor-Treating Fields Plus Temozolomide for Glioblastoma Nothing we did not know before, but now this impressive journal has an article that says Optune should be the standard of care for GBMs. This should help get insurance coverage for those few plans that still deny it.
[04/06/2018] The Musella Foundation For Brain Tumor Research & Information, Inc awarded a brain tumor research grant today! This is an interesting project. This is a preclinical experiment that may quickly lead to a human trial!
[03/20/2018] NCCN Guidelines Recommend Optune in Combination with Temozolomide as a Category 1 Treatment for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma This is great news. The NCCN basically sets the standard of care for cancer treatments. The NCCN treatments classification is:
NCCN Categories of Evidence and Consensus
- Category 1: Based upon high-level evidence, there is uniform NCCN consensus that the intervention is appropriate.
- Category 2A: Based upon lower-level evidence, there is uniform NCCN consensus that the intervention is appropriate.
- Category 2B: Based upon lower-level evidence, there is NCCN consensus that the intervention is appropriate.
- Category 3: Based upon any level of evidence, there is major NCCN disagreement that the intervention is appropriate.
Not only does this set the standard of care as including Optune, but it should make it impossible for insurance companies to deny it.
[03/16/2018] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance Program reopens! It will only be open for a few weeks. If you are thinking of applying, do it now and send it by fax. Do not mail it as you may miss out on it.
[03/09/2018] Optune Open House This is from the people at Novocure. It is a facebook event where you can learn about and ask questions about Optune!
[02/28/2018] Advantages and disadvantages of combined chemotherapy with carmustine wafer and bevacizumab in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma: A single institutional experience. This is a small study - so it can't be relied on completely. However, it shows that adding both Gliadel and Avastin to the standard Temodar for newly diagnosed GBM added 9 months to average survival and doubled progression free survival. Another tidbit - more than half of patients operated on in this hospital in Japan received Gliadel wafer.
[02/08/2018] Phase II, Open-Label, Randomized, Multicenter Trial (HERBY) of Bevacizumab in Pediatric Patients With Newly Diagnosed High-Grade Glioma. This trial shows why we need to test treatments in kids and not just assume that they will work the same as in adults. This trial compares the standard of radiation and temodar with and without Avastin, for newly diagnosed high grade glioma. In previously reported trials on adults, there was a pretty good increase in progression free survival with just about no increase in overall survival. In this study with children, they found that adding Avastin decreased both the progression free survival and overall survival, and there were more side effects in the Avastin group. [Disclosure: Genetech is a sponsor of our organization]
[01/30/2018] Final results of a phase I dose-escalation, dose-expansion study of adding disulfiram with or without copper to adjuvant temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma. This sounded like a great idea, but unfortunately it did not pan out in this study. That is why we can't just go by theory - it has to be tested in trials.
[01/29/2018] Optune Open House, Santa Anna, CA This is from the people at Novocure. These meetings are a perfect introduction to Optune for brain tumor patients thinking about trying it or those who are using it!
[01/17/2018] High-Dose Metformin Plus Temozolomide Shows Increased Anti-tumor Effects in Glioblastoma In Vitro and In Vivo Compared with Monotherapy. Very interesting. In our virtual trial, we have 10 glioblastoma patients who tried the combination and they did a lot better, on average, than those who took Temozolomide without Metformin.
[12/23/2017] Musella Foundation Co-pay Assistance Program Status If you could use help - do not be shy about asking. These treatments can get expensive. If you think you need it, apply as soon as possible as the program is going to close quickly. Send by fax. IF you do not have fax, email it to us, but call us on the phone 888-295-4740 after you email it, and tell us you sent it. We will look for it and fax it for you.
[12/19/2017] JAMA Publishes Final Analysis of EF-14 Phase 3 Pivotal Trial of Optune® Together with Temozolomide Demonstrating Unprecedented Survival Results for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma This is the final report of the Optune trial for newly diagnosed GBM. It should set the new standard of care for GBM to include Optune.
[12/03/2017] Tumor response of temozolomide in combination with morphine in a xenograft model of human glioblastoma. This was only in mice, but it shows that using morphine might make temodar work better.
[11/21/2017] Local alkylating chemotherapy applied immediately after 5-ALA guided resection of glioblastoma does not provide additional benefit. This showed no benefit of adding Gliadel when 5-ALA was used to guide the surgery. Surprising results.
[10/25/2017] Optune trials opens for adult patients with low grade gliomas and pediatric patients with high grade gliomas These are exciting trials. It is nice to see more research on other uses for the Optune device.
[09/27/2017] Amazing increase in survival for newly diagnosed GBM by adding CCNU This study shows an amazing increase in survival by adding ccnu to Temozolomide. These treatments are already available and may be worth asking your doctors about now.
[09/24/2017] Combination of Optune® with Temozolomide Demonstrates Unprecedented Five-Year Survival for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Patients The 5 year results for Optune just came out and they were unbelievably good. This is a large study in newly diagnosed GBM patients so the results are significant. Bottom line: 5 year survival rate was 13% for the Optune (plus Temodar) group and only 5% for the Temodar alone group. That is a major step forward.
[09/07/2017] Curtana Pharmaceuticals Successfully Completes Pre-IND Submission for CT-179 for the Treatment of Malignant Gliomas This sounds exciting - it is a new target which is not usually found on normal brain but is found in GBM cells - especially cancer stem cells
[08/15/2017] Curtana Pharmaceuticals Granted FDA Orphan Drug Designation for CT-179 for the Treatment of Gliomas This targets Oligo2, which sounds like it might be a great target
[08/14/2017] Options to Treat a Glioblastoma I was asked for my opinion on what I would do if I had a newly diagnosed gbm.. here is my response. We can discuss it in our online forum: https://forum.virtualtrials.org/forum/main-forum
[08/14/2017] Successful use of equine anti-thymocyte globulin (ATGAM) for fulminant myocarditis secondary to nivolumab therapy. This is a very rare, but very serious, side effect of checkpoint inhibitors. Although it is only 1 patient, keep this in mind if you hear of this side effect.
[07/29/2017] Early initiation of chemoradiation following index craniotomy is associated with decreased survival in high-grade glioma. Very interesting study. It says that starting radiation therapy earlier than we usual do actually is worse for the patient. The study was performed just by looking at billing records. I would like to see more research on this. Perhaps look at the reasons radiation was started earlier. Maybe those patients had a lot of residual tumor so they were rushed into radiation as there was less space for recurrence? Or had some other medical reasons.
[07/24/2017] Novocure™ Announces a Phase 1b Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety of Marizomib and Temozolomide in Combination with Optune® as Adjuvant Therapy in Patients with Glioblastoma All new trials should consider adding an Optune arm. Currently, a few interesting trials are not allowing patients to use Optune at the same time as the trial. I feel that is not ethical. Optune has been shown to more than double the 5 year survival rate for adult GBM. If you have to make a choice between trying Optune with a proven benefit and minimal side effects to trying an experimental therapy with no track record and inknown side effects, I would choose Optune. [Disclaimer: Novocure is a sponsor of the Musella Foundation]
[07/06/2017] Comparative Study of Adjuvant Temozolomide Six Cycles Versus Extended 12 Cycles in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme.
Comparative Study of Adjuvant Temozolomide Six Cycles Versus Extended 12 Cycles in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme. 6 months of Temozolomide for newly diagnosed patients became the standard because the original trials specified 6 months. That was done to speed up the trials. They didn't try various lengths of time and picked the best. This study looks at using 6 vs 12 months or Temozolomide. It is a small study - so you have to be careful, but using the 12 months of temozolomide increased overall survival by over 50% but did triple the chances of having toxicity.
[06/12/2017] First Patient Enrolled in RTOG Trial of Optune® together with Bevacizumab for Patients with Bevacizumab-Refractory Recurrent Glioblastoma Interesting combination. I would guess the concept they are going after is that Avastin, when it fails, doesn't just stop working - it just doesn't work enough but still is slowing down the tumor. If you add Optune, perhaps the combination could be strong enough to stop the tumor. Hate to say, but it may make more sense to just start Optune at the start - right after radiation - on newly diagnosed people. For those that missed that opportunity, this trial makes sense. [Disclaimer: Novocure is a sponor of our organizaiton]
[05/20/2017] Defining optimal cutoff value of MGMT promoter methylation by ROC analysis for clinical setting in glioblastoma patients. Until recently, this did not matter much, but as we get closer to treatments that can work on patients with unmethylated MGMT, this becomes of utmost importance. To recap: MGMT is a repair enzyme that can fix the damage caused by Temozolomide, making the cells resistant to Temozolomide. "Methylation of MGMT" means that the gene that codes for the MGMT repair enzyme is blocked so it cannot make the MGMT enzyme - which gives a better result for Temozolomide. "Unmethylated MGMT" thus means that the gene is not blocked, and it makes the repair enzyme, so Temozolomide has much less chance of helping. The controversy is that most tests do not say you are 100% methylated or unmethylated. It is open to interpretation of where the cutoff between methylated and unmethylated lies. Pathology labs should show the % of methylated cells in addition to the label of unmethylated or methylated, as this cutoff value can change.
[05/14/2017] Long-term benefit of intra-arterial bevacizumab for recurrent glioblastoma. This is a different way to give Avastin - directly into an artery. One case doesn't prove anything but it is very nice to see.
[05/08/2017] DelMar Presents New Mechanism of Action Data for its Lead Agent VAL-083 in Temozolomide-Resistant Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) at the World Federation of Neuro-Oncology Societies (WFNOS) This is a very important trial - hopefully it will allow GBM patients who happen to have the "bad" markers to do as well (or better) than the current standard of care does with GBM patients who have the "good" markers!
[05/01/2017] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance Program reopens! It will only be open for a few weeks. If you are thinking of applying, do it now and send it by fax. Do not mail it as you may miss out on it.
[04/17/2017] CNS Oncology Publishes Data Suggesting Survival Benefit of Optune™ in Combination with Second Line Chemotherapies after Glioblastoma Recurrence This study shows that Optune should be continued after the first recurrence, and use it in addition to a second line therapy. Patients who had a recurrence and remained on Optune therapy did 31% better than those that discontinued Optune.
[04/06/2017] Is more better? The impact of extended adjuvant temozolomide in newly diagnosed glioblastoma: a secondary analysis of EORTC and NRG Oncology/RTOG. This is the second recent study to suggest that 6 months of Temozolomide might be optimal. However, this was not a randomized prospective trial. I would think each case is different and if things are going well, it may be worth using Temozolomide longer. If not, try something else.
[04/05/2017] DelMar Pharmaceuticals Provides VAL-083 Updates from the Ongoing American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting This is one of my favorites. It may become a drop in replacement for Temodar in patients who have unmethylated MGMT, and it might also do better in other situations.
[03/17/2017] Limited role for extended maintenance temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma. This article says that using more than 6 months of Temozolomide is not better than using 6 months of it as far as survival goes. That is counter-intuitive. I would like to see larger studies to confirm it.
[03/10/2017] Role of MGMT Methylation Status at Time of Diagnosis and Recurrence for Patients with Glioblastoma: Clinical Implications. Good project, but I disagree with their conclusion. They found that 25% of the time, the methylation status changes between the first and second surgery. They conclude that it is insignificant and we shouldn't bother testing the second time as it provides no useful information. They are correct for now, but that should change very shortly as there is now a drug in clinical trials that can work on unmethylated patients. This makes the methylation status very important to determine, and for those 25% of patients with the changed status, it can be a life altering test.
[01/25/2017] DelMar Pharmaceuticals and MD Anderson Initiate New Phase Two Clinical Trial of VAL-083 for MGMT-unmethylated Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) This is one of the more promising trials. Val-083 is a new chemotherapy that works similar to the way Temozolomide works, except at a different location, so the MGMT repair enzyme can not undo the damage. If there is a lot of MGMT repair enzyme around, (sometimes pathology reports call this unmethylated MGMT genes) temozolomide has a much smaller chance of helping, so something else is needed.
[01/19/2017] Novocure’s Optune® Now Available at 500 Cancer Treatment Centers in the U.S. That is amazing, as doctors have to take a course to get certified in the use of Optune. This means that practically every major brain tumor center in the USA can offer Optune to their patients. There was a 70 percent increase in the survival rate at 4 years for newly diagnosed GBM patients, and Optune is now considered the standard of care for newly diagnosed gbms!
[01/03/2017] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance Program reopens! This program will probably close quickly so if you think you may need it, apply as soon as possible!
[12/31/2016] Prognostic parameters and outcome after re-irradiation for progressive glioblastoma. This suggests that stereotactc radiosurgery may be worth consdering for recurrent gbm. This is another controversial issue in the field. Some doctors I talk with never use it, and others use it a lot. This is why it is so important to get second opinions.
[12/25/2016] ONC201 Glioblastoma Trial to Expand Based on Promising Initial Results It's a great sign that they expanded the trial to include more patients and has shown signs of helping patients as well as of not hurting them.
[12/19/2016] Use of an anti-viral drug, Ribavirin, as an anti-glioblastoma therapeutic. Aside from the mechanism of action these authors proposed, perhaps the theories about cytomegalovirus playing a role in GBMs are valid, and this drug also fights the CMV, just like Valcyte does.
[12/13/2016] Tocagen Expands Toca 5, Phase 2/3 Clinical Trial for Recurrent Brain Cancer, to Israel We have a lot of members from Israel asking about coming to the US for clinical trials - now they have one of my favorite trials available there!
[11/18/2016] Long-Term Analysis of All 695 Patients Enrolled in Novocure’s Phase 3 Pivotal Trial in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Confirms Successful Interim Analysis Results and Demonstrates Superior Two- and Four-Year Survival Rates This is what we have been waiting for. The final results of the Optune trial for newly diagnosed GBM. There was some resistance to accepting Optune as the standard of care because the results presented 2 years ago were "just preliminary". The final results are actually better than the preliminary results! Now the next step is getting insurance to pay for it. Already most non-Medicare plans do pay for it, but Medicare has been hesitating. We had a petition a while ago to help nudge Medicare toward paying for it. I presented it to them and we did come close and I think it did help - but we had that problem of results being preliminary. We are going to try again. I resurrected the survey - and updated it to show current results. Please sign it and have your friends and family members sign it. IF you already signed it last time - you do not need to sign it again - it is still valid. If you aren't sure, email me your name and address and I will check it for you. Go to https://virtualtrials.com/activism.cfm for details and to sign!
[11/07/2016] United Healthcare Issues Positive Coverage Decision for Optune This has been a big battle to get insurance to pay for Optune. United Healthcare was basically the last private insurance that didn't pay - now almost all do. Next up is the Medicare battle. I have been working on that one for a while and getting closer. I may need your help soon - we are thinking of another petition campaign!
[11/07/2016] Novocure Announces 38 Presentations on Tumor Treating Fields at 21st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Neuro-Oncology It looks like Optune is finally getting the respect that it deserves. When it was first introduced, I would say most neuro-oncologists dismissed it without looking at data, based solely on preconceived notions that it couldn't possible work. Now, most seem to at least allow their patients to try it, if not encourage them to try it. The holdouts tell me that the data is preliminary and they will wait for the full report. Well - that will come out next week! I did not see it yet, but I assume from this press release that it is favorable. Hopefully that will remove the last doubt that this should be part of the standard of care for newly diagnosed Glioblastomas. It is very significant that most of the presentations are from researchers not associated with the company. That shows broad acceptance in the field.
[10/25/2016] Fatal Liver and Bone Marrow Toxicity by Combination Treatment of Dichloroacetate and Artesunate in a Glioblastoma Multiforme Patient: Case Report and Review of the Literature. This is a reminder that we have to be careful of the treatments we use. If you think an alternative treatment is strong enough to stop a glioblastoma, then it may be strong enough to cause other severe problems.
[10/09/2016] CIK Treatment Extends Progression-free Survival of Glioblastoma Patients by 1.5 Times Impressive results in a large controlled trial.
[10/09/2016] Exclusive: Interview With DelMar Pharmaceutical CEO Jeffrey Bacha This drug, Val-083, might just be the next big step forward. Late stage trials are about to start. It already had been approved in China for other diseases, and over 1,000 patients took it and have shown that toxicity is not a problem. It might especially be useful for gbm patients who have unmethylated MGMT. The article may have missed a little on the statistics. I doubt if 200,000 GBMs are diagnosed a year. They say "less than 200,000" but it is more like 20,000.
[10/01/2016] Effect of Bevacizumab Plus Temozolomide-Radiotherapy for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma with Different MGMT Methylation Status: A Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials. The MGMT status did not have much effect on the use of Avastin with newly diagnosed gbm patients. It is good to see research on this topic, because people with unmethylated MGMT are usually relatively resistant to Temodar.
[10/01/2016] Phase I/II trial of combination of temozolomide chemotherapy and immunotherapy with fusions of dendritic and glioma cells in patients with glioblastoma. Excellent results.. in a small group of patients. Average survival of 30.5 months for newly diagnosed GBM patients is pretty good. More research needs to be done.
[09/26/2016] Orbus Therapeutics Announces Enrollment of First Patient in Phase 3 Trial in Late-Stage Brain Cancer Interesting drug. It is approved for uses other than cancer, so if this trial shows it works, access will be easy. I am not sure about the statistics they use.. they say anaplastic astrocytoma was the largest subset of anaplastic glioma, but Glioblastoma multiforme is. They say 75% of the 20,000 cases of anaplastic glioma are 2,700 anaplastic astrocytomas.. but 75% of 20,000 is 15,000..
[09/19/2016] CNS Oncology Publishes Tumor Treating Fields Treatment Planning and Patient Follow-up Guidelines in Glioblastoma This should make the treatment work better - especially for those offices that do not have a lot of experience with using Optune
[09/07/2016] DelMar Pharmaceuticals and Accurexa to Collaborate in the Development of a Novel Combination Chemotherapy for the Local Treatment of Brain Cancer Val-083 is an experimental treatment (actually it is approved in China for other types of cancer) for brain tumors. It is similar to Temodar, but works at a different site which is not affected by the MGMT status of the patient. The VAL-083 trial for recurrent GBM should be considered for patients who have unmethylated MGMT. This press release talks about combining VAL-083 with Temodar or BCNU, and implanting it at the time of surgery to increase the dosage of the drugs at the site of the tumor. Sounds exciting.
[09/01/2016] Gliadel wafer implantation combined with standard radiotherapy and concurrent followed by adjuvant temozolomide for treatment of newly diagnosed high-grade glioma: a systematic literature review. According to this study, adding Gliadel at the time of the initial surgery, followed by the (old) standard of care adds about 3-4 months to overall survival. That is pretty good, considering it is a 1 time treatment done at the time of surgery. I feel it should be used more often than it is. Some hospitals seem to use it a lot, and others not at all.
[08/31/2016] Musella Foundation Copay Assistance Program reopens! This program will probably close quickly so if you think you may need it, apply as soon as possible!
[08/18/2016] Evaluation of pseudoprogression rates and tumor progression patterns in a phase III trial of bevacizumab plus radiotherapy/temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma. There has always been the fear that using Avastin would cause the tumor to become more invasive as the blood supply to the tumor gets cut off. This article shows in a large number of patients that this fear is not justified.
[08/16/2016] Novocure Converts More Than 500 U.S. Patients to Second Generation Optune within Four Weeks of FDA Approval on July 13 This should make the Optune system easier to use.
[07/26/2016] NCCN Guidelines Recommend Optune as a Standard Treatment Option for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma I sent a story about this in a recent news blast but this is the press release from Novocure and their take on the topic!
[07/13/2016] Novocure Receives FDA Approval for Second Generation Optune System I have seen the new system, and it is much nicer. Smaller, lighter, looks much more modern, and is easier to use.
[06/29/2016] Rapid regression of glioblastoma following carmustine wafer implantation: A case report. You can never make decisions based on individual case reports but they are nice to see. Gliadel has been neglected by some medical centers. On average, it adds a little extra time before the tumor progresses, sometimes allowing time for other treatments to have a chance at working. It was never meant to be a cure by itself. We do not have enough patients in our brain tumor virtual trial (virtualtrials.com) to make a statistically significant statement about it, but taking a look at just our long term (over 5 year) GBM survivors, 5 out of the 21 (24%) have used Gliadel as part of the plan. Looking at all GBM patients, 36 out of 469 (8%) have used Gliadel. To me this means that if Gliadel had no effect, you would expect the same % of patients who used it as the % of long term survivors who use it. But we see a tripling of the %, which means Gliadel does have a big increase (possibly tripling) in the chances of becoming a long term survivor, and it should be studied more in depth.
[06/29/2016] Outcome of young children with high-grade glioma treated with irradiation-avoiding intensive chemotherapy regimens: Final report of the Head Start II and III trials. This study shows that it might be OK to avoid radiation therapy for high grade gliomas in young children, or at least delay it until they are older. Radiation in young children can cause permanent problems like a lower IQ. These results are still not good enough but are similar to the treatments that do include radiation, so the lucky few who survive are presumably in better condition. A better way needs to be found.
[06/24/2016] Cortice Biosciences Announces Presentation of Results from a Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial Evaluating TPI 287 for Treatment of Recurrent Glioblastoma at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Impressive results.
[06/04/2016] Temozolomide Trial Shows Improved 5-Year Survival Rates in Anaplastic Glioma We already knew this - but strangely I hear of many patients who do not get Temozolomide at the same time as radiation for Anaplastic Astrocytomas. This article should hopefully change that.
[05/31/2016] Novocure Receives IDE Approval to Initiate METIS Trial This sounds like a great combination. Radiosurgery can usually control an individual brain met over 90% of the time, however the patient usually still develops new mets in the brain - because the radiosurgery doesn't do anything for the little islands of tumor cells that you can't yet see on the scans. The TTFields might be able to stop those islands from developing into new tumors.
[05/08/2016] Phase II study of radiotherapy and temsirolimus versus radiochemotherapy with temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma without MGMT promoter hypermethylation (EORTC 26082). Unfortunately, this treatment did worse than the control group - which was the standard of care.
[04/27/2016] Novocure’s Optune Now Available at More Than 360 Cancer Treatment Centers in the U.S. Looks like Optune should now be available to just about everyone.
[04/05/2016] Upfront bevacizumab may extend survival for glioblastoma patients who do not receive second-line therapy: an exploratory analysis of AVAglio. This makes sense. When the AVAglio trial was reported, it showed that Avastin improved progression free survival but not overall survial. This did not make sense to me, as I interact with a LOT of brain tumor patients and we track them in our brain tumor virtual trial registry. I always felt that Avastin does increase overall survival. Looking closer, it appears that the trial was designed to allow patients in the control group who had progression to take Avastin after the progression. So in effect, they were comparing patients who took Avastin to patients who took Avastin and there was no difference. Duh. This analysis seperates out those who did not have Avastin or other treatments after reccurence and it showed that there is an overall survival advantage for Avastin.
[03/17/2016] Bevacizumab Plus Irinotecan Versus Temozolomide in Newly Diagnosed O6-Methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase Nonmethylated Glioblastoma: The Randomized GLARIUS Trial. Impressive gain in progression free survival. These trials should NOT even try to report on overall survival. They say 83% of patients in the control group took Avastin at the time of recurrence. So they are comparing patients who took Avastin to patients who took Avastin and found no difference in overall survival. Duh.
[03/03/2016] Humana Issues Positive Coverage Decision For Optune Humana insures 10 million people in the USA, and now all of these people have access to Optune if they need it!
[02/14/2016] Phase 2 multicenter study of gene-mediated cytotoxic immunotherapy as adjuvant to surgical resection for newly diagnosed malignant glioma. Excellent result. For the group with total resections, this increased the chances of being alive at the 3 year point from 6% in the control group to 32% in the gene therapy group. Amazing.
[02/14/2016] ABT-414, an Antibody Drug Conjugate Targeting a Tumor-Selective EGFR Epitope. This is very exciting. They found a way to target the EGFR in tumors and not in normal tissue. There are a few trials going on now for this treatment. Check virtualtrials.com for details.
[02/14/2016] Anthem Inc. Issues Positive Coverage Decision For Optune in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma
Great news.
Now that the 3 largest private health insurance carriers in the USA cover Optune, the rest should follow suit soon! This is a major victory in the fight against brain tumors. We thought the hard part was going to be getting FDA approval because it is a completely new type of treatment, but that actually was easy since the data supported it. Once that happened, I assumed patients would be able to just get it but the timing was terrible. Insurance companies have just started fighting back against expensive treatments and started denying all new treatments as a way of saving money until they are forced to pay for them. It was a long, hard battle but the people at Novocure persevered and won the battle with the private insurers.
Next up is Medicare. I had multiple meetings with Medicare and they are getting close to approving payment. The people I met with at Medicare understand that brain tumor patients need this treatment and they are trying to find a way to pay for it. Having the majority of private insurance companies paying for Optune, along with the recent publication of data in the Journal of the American Medical Association, should allow patients to appeal Medicare rejections successfully. IF you have a problem with a Medicare rejection, call me at 888-295-4740 and maybe I can write a letter for you to help with the appeal.
[01/06/2016] Novocure Files Premarket Approval Supplement Application With FDA for Second Generation Optune System I saw the new system, and it looks like it will make using the system a lot easier!
[01/05/2016] Intra-arterial administration improves temozolomide delivery and efficacy in a model of intracerebral metastasis, but has unexpected brain toxicity. This article shows that intra-arterial administration - either with or without disruption of the blood brain barrier may be too toxic to use.
[01/04/2016] SPAGNOLETTI & ASSOCIATES RAISING FUNDS FOR MUSELLA FOUNDATION Thank you to the Spagnoletti family and friends who are helping us raise money for brain tumor research!
[12/15/2015] Maintenance Therapy With Tumor-Treating Fields Plus Temozolomide vs Temozolomide Alone for Glioblastoma This may be the most important article of the year. It is the report on the phase 3 clinical trial for newly diagnosed GBM trial comparing Optune and the standard of care vs the standard of care alone. Excellent results - best of any large phase 3 GBM trial. Better than the results that made Temodar the standard of care. The trial was stopped early by the FDA when they saw the Optune group did so much better than the control group, and they allowed the control group to cross over into the treatment group. This is the first time (that I am aware of) this happened for brain tumors! Hopefully this will remove all doubt that Optune works and should be included in the standard of care for newly diagnosed gbm.
[11/27/2015] Existing Drug May Limit Recurrence and Metastasis of Glioblastoma Multiforme As far as I know, this drug is not yet approved for humans. It is approved for dogs and is pretty inexpensive, so it is easily available. I would love to see a human trial of it.
[11/23/2015] Tocagen Presents Interim Data from Studies Evaluating Toca 511 & Toca FC at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Exciting reports from the SNO meeting! Highlight is almost a doubling of survival time for patients using Toca511 compared to historical controls. These were small uncontrolled trials but they show enough promise that they justify a large phase 2/3 trial which is starting right now! (disclaimer: Tocagen is a sponsor of our organization)
[11/23/2015] Combination of bevacizumab and lomustine with first recurrence of glioblastoma prolongs PFS but not OS We need to have a discussion about the value of increasing progression free survival (PFS) without increasing overall survival. (The braintumor treatments group is the best place to discuss it). My thoughts are that obviously, increasing PFS is good - you feel good for a longer period of time, but perhaps it may be better to try other things instead. Shoot for increasing both PFS and overall survival. There are a few interesting trials going on for recurrent GBM, and the Optune device has been shown to increase both PFS and OS.
[11/22/2015] Groundbreaking Global Brain Cancer Trial Planned
I tried to get something very similar off the ground years ago, but couldn't raise the money needed for it. I had the major brain tumor centers and another brain tumor foundation willing but it was too expensive for us. I hope this group does well. I think it is the fastest and cheapest way to find the best drugs and combinations.
[11/20/2015] ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Ltd Presents Updated ICT-107 Phase 2 Survival and Immune Response Data at the Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting 2015 Good news from the SNO meeting: Although they did not hit the original target of overall survival for all patients in the trial, they found a subgroup of patients where the vaccine worked very well. Newly diagnosed GBM patients with a blood type of HLA-A2+ did very well. If the MGMT methylation status was positive, there was a 58% increase in survival compared to the control group. If the MGMT status was negative, there was a 34% increase in survival. This is for a treatment that is just a simple shot in the arm and once approved, could just be added to other treatments. They just started a new phase 3 trial that will require patients to be HLA-A2+. This should show a big improval.
[11/20/2015] New Phase 3 Data show Optune in Combination with Second Line Chemotherapy is Superior to Second Line Chemotherapy Alone in Glioblastoma Patients at First Recurrence This is a new report on combining Optune with Avastin. Both are approved for recurrent GBM. The combination reduced the chance of dying by 39% compared to Avastin alone. This should be the standard for recurrent gbm and investigated for newly diagnosed.
[11/17/2015] Novocure Announces 18 Presentations on Tumor Treating Fields at SNO 2015 Including New Analyses of the EF-14 Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Clinical Trial Data Amazing number of presentations for Optune. So glad to see the brain tumor community finally embracing this new treatment option!
[11/17/2015] Drug That Could Limit Spread of Deadly Brain Tumours This should be tested in combination with Avastin. Might make a big impact!
[10/30/2015] Does Early Postsurgical Temozolomide Plus Concomitant Radiochemotherapy Regimen Have Any Benefit in Newly-diagnosed Glioblastoma Patients? A Multi-center, Randomized, Parallel, Open-label, Phase II Clinical Trial. This has an interesting result: Using Temozolomide right after surgery compared to waiting until radiation starts resulted in a big increase in median overall survival, but a decrease in progression free survival. It makes a lot of sense to me to start the Temozolomide right away (although we have to study the effect on wound healing), but more research is needed to see why the progression free survival goes down while the overall survival goes up.
[10/11/2015] Metformin and temozolomide act synergistically to inhibit growth of glioma cells and glioma stem cells in vitro and in vivo. This is only in the test tube and in mice, so more research is needed. This is a perfect use of the brain tumor virtual trial... we have 7 patients who used Metformin in addition to Temodar, and they seem to be doing better than average. That is not enough patients to even consider using it but it is a good start. If everyone reading this joined the virtual trial project, we would have enough data to say it is worth using - or not. Go to virtualtrials.com and click virtual trial to join and for details. It is free and easy - we do not tell you what to do - we just observe the outcome.
[10/05/2015] Musella Foundation Drug Discount Card Update I went to use the discount card recently and the pharmacist said it was invalid, so I checked and the PDF version had a digit missing, which the plastic cards we distribute had correctly. So I fixed the PDF and now both the plastic cards and the pdf should work. For the PDF, you just pull it up on your smartphone and show the pharmacist!
[10/05/2015] FDA Expands Optune`s Glioblastoma Multiforme Indication Fantastic news! The FDA acted quickly! They approved Optune for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma to be used in addition to the standard treatment! It results in "the risk of progression or death was reduced by 37 percent "
[09/12/2015] Novocure to Present the Latest Data from the EF-14 Clinical Trial in Newly Diagnosed GBM at the 15th Interim Meeting of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies This updated the results that were presented last year. They still look great!
[09/01/2015] Oncoceutics Awarded Grant for Phase II Brain Cancer Trial We helped fund the early work on this (They mention us in the press release!). For details on how this drug works, go to: oncoceutics.com/therapeutic-approach/
[08/24/2015] Merck Recalls Temodar and Temozolomide Bottles with Cracked Caps Due to Failure to Meet Child-Resistant Closure Requirement This recall only involves the caps - which might not be childproof.. the medication itself is not affected
[07/27/2015] A Phase 2 Study of Concurrent Radiation Therapy, Temozolomide, and the Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor Valproic Acid for Patients With Glioblastoma. This is a small study - so we can't be sure the results are correct, but it seems to have minimal side effects, it can prevent seizures, and elevate mood. And it might make the Temodar and radiation work better! May be worth trying. It is readily available.
[07/05/2015] Randomized phase 2 study of carboplatin and bevacizumab in recurrent glioblastoma. This study says that adding carboplatin to Avastin actually is worse than using Avastin alone for recurrent gbm.
[06/27/2015] IBTA Newsletter From our good friends at the IBTA
[06/03/2015] Development of resistance to antiglioma agents in rat C6 cells caused collateral sensitivity to doxorubicin. This type of research is brilliant. It is only in a mouse model, so we do not yet know if it applies to humans. They looked at tumors that became resistant to BCNU and Temodar and found that the changes that allowed the resistance to these drugs opened the door for different drugs to work. Doxorubicin has been shown to be effective against brain tumor cells in the test tube but it is hard to get a high level of it in the brain so it is not used much today. 10 years ago there was a paper (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1635000/) reporting on using Doxorubicin wafers implanted into rat brain tumor and they did pretty well. It may be time to look at this again especially for recurrent GBMs that became resistant to temodar.
[05/31/2015] Novocure Announces First Analysis of Full 700 Patient Dataset from Successful Newly Diagnosed GBM Phase III Trial This confirms the good results they reported in the interim analysis a few months ago. 2 year survival for newly diagnosed GBM patients went up from 29% in the standard therapy group to 43% in the standard + Novocure group. More of the details will come out on June 2, 2015. When I discussed the interim results with neuro-oncs , many took the cautious viewpoint of "wait for the full results - it can't be that good". Well - these are the full results and almost as good as the interim results. They also had concern that perhaps a major difference in prognostic factors between the control group and treatment group might account for the difference. Hopefully we will find out in a few days when more details are released.
[05/28/2015] Novocure Hosts First Glioblastoma-focused Hackathon to Develop New Support Tools for the GBM Brain Cancer Community This sounds like a lot of fun and a great idea! It is a contest with nice prizes to create tools to help GBM patients. [Disclaimer: Novocure is a sponsor of our organization]
[05/28/2015] Adding Bevacizumab (Avastin) Has No Impact on Quality of Life in Glioblastoma This article is confusing. They first say adding Bevacizumab (Avastin) to the standard of care has no impact on quality of life, then they say "Adding bevacizumab to radiotherapy with temozolomide (RT/TMZ) resulted in statistically longer deterioration-free survival across all health-related quality of life items." In my view, they are intentionally being misleading with the headline. In the fine print at the end they say "there is no impact on quality of life DURING the progression free period." I take that to mean the until there is progression, quality of life in both groups was relatively good. Once quality of life deteriorates, there is progression. So of course there won't be much difference in the period before progression - how can you get better than good? They downplay the part about statistically significant longer deterioration free survival. To me that is very important and a good reason for using Avastin for newly diagnosed. By having the same quality of life with and without Avastin, that means adding Avastin does not have a negative impact on quality of life - no more serious side effects than the placebo. And you have a longer period of feeling good. [Disclosure - the company that makes Avastin is a sponsor of our organization)
[05/26/2015] Risk of surgical site infection in 401 consecutive patients with glioblastoma with and without carmustine wafer implantation When Gliadel was first approved, there were rumors that it caused brain infections. There were reports that it happened much more frequently with inexperianced neurosurgeons, but not with the experienced ones. This article shows that there is no link between the wafers and infections. The long term data with Gliadel looks good. It is surprising that it isn't used more often.
[05/25/2015] Do glioma patients derive any therapeutic benefit from taking a higher cumulative dose of temozolomide regimens?: a meta-analysis. This is a surprising finding.. the standard dosing for Temodar does as well as the dose dense schedules with less chance of serious side effects.
[05/11/2015] FDA Grants Priority Review Status for Novocure’s PMA Supplement Application of Optune in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma This is great news. Hopefully the FDA will quickly approve the Optune system for newly diagnosed GBM patients. Right now it is only approved for recurrent GBM patients but with results like this ( a 48% increase in 2 year survival rate), of course newly diagnosed patients should be using it. Newly diagnosed patients can use it now off label. I just had a patient request my help in fighting his insurance company - they rejected the claim for Optune for his newly diagnosed GBM saying it is experimental for newly diagnosed. I sent a nice letter along with the research and they reversed the decision, saying they will now pay for it. Getting the FDA - then the NCCN - to support it's use for newly diagnosed will speed things up and avoid that problem.
[05/05/2015] Novocure Kicks Off Brain Tumor Awareness Month with New Activities to Address Challenges in the Glioblastoma Community We will be participating in most of these events!
[04/14/2015] Metformin Inhibits Growth of Human Glioblastoma Cells and Enhances Therapeutic Response. Metformin is a cheap, easily available drug used to treat type 2 diabetes. Sounds interesting.
[04/10/2015] Observational, retrospective study of the effectiveness of 5-aminolevulinic acid in malignant glioma surgery in Spain (The VISIONA study). 5-aminolevulinic acid (also known as Gliolan) is a simple dye that is given before surgery that makes the tumor visible during surgery. It has been approved for years in Europe but not in the USA yet. This study shows that there is a better chance of removing the entire tumor and patients live longer when using it. Doesn't make sense that it is not available in the USA.
[03/14/2015] Phase 2 trial of dasatinib in target-selected patients with recurrent glioblastoma (RTOG 0627). I had high hopes for this trial. Previous trials that used targeted drugs against 1 target failed, so the thinking was to try targeting multiple targets. Dasatinib is active against 4 targets, and did not work. Hopefully the concept is correct and this mix of targets was wrong.
[03/07/2015] IBTA e-News From our friends at the IBTA
[02/26/2015] Cancer drug first tested in pet dogs begins human trials This will soon start trials in brain tumors in dogs soon. hopefully it works and will start up in people!
[02/26/2015] New clinical trial for Glioblastoma using immunotherapy This is an exciting new trial for gbm patients either at first recurrence or if there is residual tumor after the initial surgery and radiation. Patients must be EGFRviii positive. This type of treatment has shown fantastic results in other types of cancers and they are now trying it for GBM patients.
[02/13/2015] Randomized phase II adjuvant factorial study of dose-dense temozolomide alone and in combination with isotretinoin, celecoxib, and/or thalidomide for glioblastoma This is a study of Temozolomide alone and in combinations with 3 different drugs that have been popular with brain tumor patients. I think this study is too small to really tell what is happening but it is interesting for 2 things: 1. The design of the trial is impressive - it is a new way to test multiple treatments. Great start and this is how trials should be run, but there were not enough people in each group. 2. Overall, there was no or minimal benefit to any combination tested over the Temodar alone. However, the group using isotretinoin (accutane) did much worse than all other combinations or even just Temodar alone. This shows that trials are always needed even when it seems to make sense to try adding something to the standard therapy. IF it is strong enough to help, it is also strong enough to hurt and a trial is the only way to tell if the benefits outweigh the risks. There have been other trials showing a benefit to adding Accutane to the standard treatment, so more research needs to be done.
[01/22/2015] IBTA e-news From our friends at the IBTA
[01/20/2015] CytRx Announces Positive Interim Phase 2 Aldoxorubicin Results in Glioblastoma Multiforme (Brain Cancer) Sounds very promising. It is rare to get a complete response in recurrent gbm
[11/19/2014] Al Musella`s Brain Tumor Blog on SNO2014 This is my thoughts on the exciting news from SNO this week!
[11/15/2014] Novocure Announces the EF-14 Phase III Clinical Trial of Tumor Treating Fields in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma has been Terminated at the Interim Analysis due to Early Success
This is historic. As far as I know, and I have been involved with brain tumors for 22 years, this is the first time a GBM trial was ever stopped early because it actually worked! Optune – the new name for the FDA approved Novocure tumor treating field device, has finally shown what it can do.   This was a large phase 3 randomized trial comparing the standard “Stupp Protocol” to the standard + the Optune device. There are many ways to look at the results (see the article for the rest) but keep in mind the numbers given are from the time the trial started, not from the date of diagnosis. The trial started around 3.8 months after diagnosis. There was an increase of about 50% in the number of patients alive at 2 years after starting treatment ( about 27.8 months after diagnosis) , from 29% in the Temodar group to 43% in the Optune group. Overall survival increased by about 3 months, from 16.6 to 19.9 months after trial started ( or about 20.4 to 23.7 after diagnosis).
Dr Stupp presented the data and then said "a new standard of care for patients with GBM has been established", and "A new cancer treatment modality has been born". He called it a paradigm shift.
The last time the standard of care changed was in 2005 when Dr Stupp presented his data on using Temodar at the same time as radiation, in addition to the old way of using Temodar. That resulted in a gain of 2.5 months, from 12.1 months to 14.6 months from diagnosis.
My opinion is that this is a big step forward, with very little downside. This is the first non-toxic therapy ever to succeed in a phase III trial for newly diagnosed cancer patients. I agree it should be the new standard of care. Of course a lot more work needs to be done but we have to go with the best we have at the time and this is it. I hope to see more trials combining other treatments with Optune – hopefully also with no or low toxicities. This brings us a step closer to our goal of a cure.
Talking to many of the doctors present at the meeting, there were still a few who said they wouldn’t use it. The main objection now is that it may interfere with clinical trials.   I would suggest designing trials to allow for the use of Optune just as they had to do when the standard of care changed 9 years ago. I am a huge supporter of clinical trials but if there is a choice between using Optune and having minimal or no additional side effects with a known average benefit of a 50% better chance of living at least 2 years, vs. a clinical trial which has unknown side effect profile and unknown benefit in survival, I would probably choose the Optune.
If you decide that you want to try this treatment, ask your doctor about it but if they seem resistant to the idea, go to http://optune.com to find a doctor in your area that is trained to use it and get another opinion. This treatment has been FDA approved for recurrent glioblastoma, but it can be prescribed off label for newly diagnosed. Clearly the earlier you start it the better the outcome. Hopefully the FDA will approve it for newly diagnosed GBM soon!

     Disclaimer: Novocure is a sponsor of the Musella Foundation but I have never personally received anything of value from them.
[10/26/2014] Cavion and Yale University Announce First Patient Enrolled in Phase 1b Clinical Trial in Brain Cancer Proof of Concept T-type Calcium Channel Drug Mibefradil to be Tested as Radiosensitizer Exciting new trial. I love the concept of repurposing an approved drug for brain tumors, because IF it works, anyone can use it immediately off label and we do not need to wait years for FDA approval! I wish them luck.
[10/22/2014] Neural stem cells: On the frontier of brain cancer therapy This is a fascinating new clinical trial for recurrent high grade gliomas. The neural stem cells migrate to the tumor cells, and carry an enzyme that converts a harmless oral anti-fungal drug into a toxic chemotherapy drug only in the local area where tumor cells are. Hopefully this will result in the cancer cells getting killed and minimizing side effects to the noraml cells. It is a phase 1 trial so there are no results to look at yet, but it is worth thinking about this trial. Click HERE for details on the trial
[09/28/2014] Randomized phase II adjuvant factorial study of dose-dense temozolomide alone and in combination with isotretinoin, celecoxib, and/or thalidomide for glioblastoma This is an interesting trial design - hey tested every combination of temodar and 3 add on drugs... there probably wasn't enough patients to be sure but early result look like adding isotretinoin (Accutane) actually did worse than temodar alone, and none of the combinations did much better than temodar alone. The best was all 3 drugs plus temodar, but not by much over temodar alone.
[09/24/2014] Musella Foundation Co-pay program re-opens! Thanks to a generous donation, we are able to reopen the program!
[08/17/2014] Single-agent bevacizumab or lomustine versus a combination of bevacizumab plus lomustine in patients with recurrent glioblastoma (BELOB trial): a randomised controlled phase 2 trial. This study on recurrent GBM patients is disappointing. 97% of the patients died. Clearly we need better treatments. However, given this information, it seems better to add CCNU than to use Avastin alone.
[08/17/2014] The Effect of Timing of Radiotherapy in Patients with Newly-Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme Receiving Temozolomide: An Analysis Based on the University of California, San Francisco Experience. This study suggests that starting radiation 30-34 days after surgery may be better than starting sooner - or later than 35 days.. However, they did not correlate it with WHY some patients waited 30-34 days, others waited over 34 days and yet others had radiation sooner. That might account for the differences. To test this correctly, patients should be randomized to start radiation at the standard time or at 32 days and see if there is a difference.
[08/16/2014] Analyzing temozolomide medication errors: potentially fatal. I have heard of a few cases where people took the wrong dosage of Temodar. It is pretty complex compared to the medicines we are used to taking. There are 3 main sources of errors: Doctor prescribing wrong dose, pharmacy giving you wrong dose or instructions, and patient making a mistake in understanding the instructions. First - do a reality check. Go to http://virtualtrials.com/temodar/dose.cfm and figure out what the ideal dosage should be for you. The doctor may have reasons for changing it but if it is not close to what this app says, ask him why it is different. Next: Make sure the pharmacist has clearly marked how to take the capsules. There are different sizes that are used to add up to the correct dosage. Make sure to double check before taking each dose: how many mg you are supposed to take and then how many you are about to take. IF you have any questions, call the doctor, nurse or pharmacy before taking them. If your mind is not completely sharp, ask someone else for help to double check the medication before you take it. Read the warning instructions before starting.
[08/04/2014] Novocure Announces Commercial Launch of NovoTTF™ Therapy in Europe and Israel The Novocure system is now available in Europe and Israel!
[08/04/2014] MD Andesron Reviewed Study Reveals Bevacizumab/lomustine Combination Improved Recurrent Glioblastoma Outcomes This study shows relatively good results for the combination of Avastin and lomustine. It also showed disappointing results for Avastin alone. However, the bottom line was almost all patients died, so we need more work to get better treatments.
[07/23/2014] Physicians at 15 leading brain cancer centers in 8 countries certified to provide NovoTTF Therapy to recurrent glioblastoma patients on prescription order The Novocure system is now available in 8 other countries (beside the USA where it was FDA approved a few years ago)!
[07/14/2014] Musella Foundation Assistance Programs We have 2 programs open to help pay for your treatments!
[07/09/2014] A phase I/II trial of hydroxychloroquine in conjunction with radiation therapy and concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme. hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malaria drug that many cancer patients take because in the lab it helps. This trial tested if it is practical and effective to add to the standard of care for GBM. They found that the dose needed to make it useful was too toxic. All 3 patients at the highest dose had severe to life threatening side effects. The conslusion is that it is not proactical to use this drug but that it may be worth trying to create a new drug to target this pathway with less side effects
[07/04/2014] Agenus Brain Cancer Vaccine Shows Extended Survival in Phase 2 Final Data Analysis Good results. I like the idea of adding the checkpoint inhibitor to increase the effect of the vaccine.
[06/19/2014] Progesterone could become tool versus brain cancer Interesting, but I caution that we need to see the research before trying it. They say a low dose can make the tumor grow faster while a hig dose inhibits growth... so we need to see exactly what doses are needed... as well as the effect of p53 mutations
[06/16/2014] ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Presents Updated ICT-107 Phase II Data in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting Pretty impressive results. The most important number is that currently 21% of the treated patients are alive compared with only 7% of the control group. This is for a simple series of shots in the arm with minimal or no side effects.
[06/14/2014] MUSELLA FOUNDATION AWARDS 8 BRAIN TUMOR RESEARCH GRANTS We had the most grant applications that we ever had this round of granting. Many excellent projects are not going to be done because funding is not available. Most other sources of funding are drying up I have never heard so many researchers tell me that they spend more time looking for funding than doing actual research. 2 of the researchers told me that they are leaving brain tumor research because it is so hard to get funding. If you would like to help us fund more research - either through donations or hosting a fundraiser for us, or setting up an memorial fund or in honor of fund, - contact me. 888-295-4740 or musella@virtualtrials.com, or make a donation at http://virtualtrials.com/donate We also have a very large project that need funding - this project will speed up the process of finding the cure. We need to raise a few million dollars to run it. If you are in a position to help with it - contact us!
[06/08/2014] The effect of field strength on glioblastoma multiforme response in patients treated with the NovoTTFTM-100A system. The last sentence may be the key to a major breakthrough. The Novocure system worked great in the lab - they were able to cure all mice with brain tumors. The initial human gbm trial also came out great. Then the large trial for patients with recurrent gbm didn't come out as good as we hoped for - it was as good or better than any other treatments used, with less side effects, but no major improvement in survival over chemotherapy and/or Avastin. However, the FDA required them to monitor all patients who use the device after it was approved. They reported initial results on all of the hundreds of patients who used the device and the results were better than in the trial. Details will hopefully be released next week. I think the reason the results improved is experience. The doctors learned how to better aim the electrode placement and realized the importance of high compliance rates. This article brings up what might be the missing key. Theoretically, the device is tuned to kill a range of cell sizes centered on the average size of a gbm cell. This article says that perhaps the device does kill those cells where the field intensity is strong enough, but that if the electrodes are not placed correctly, the edges of the field is not strong enough, and if a gbm cell mutates into a "giant cell" they may be too large to be killed and those cells can repopulate the tumor. We are hosting a conference in November for researchers working with the device. Hopefully we will see these issues addressed!
[05/28/2014] EMA advisors reject Avastin for brain cancer Unfortunately this will make it hard for Europeans with brain tumors to get access to Avastin.
[05/02/2014] Why is glioblastoma so deadly? DelMar discusses the need for new cancer research and treatments for Brain Tumor Awareness Month This trial may be a good choice for GBM patients who have unmethylated MGMT
[04/23/2014] Glioblastoma Vaccine Hits Primary Endpoints in Phase 1 This phase 1 trial did better than expected (but that is only with the endpoint of safety and immune response, they did not mention survival in the article). Sounds like a great concept. They have an approach similiar to ICT-107 but with different targets. We will be keeping an eye on this one!
[04/13/2014] Randomized phase II trial of irinotecan and bevacizumab as neo-adjuvant and adjuvant to temozolomide-based chemoradiation compared to temozolomide-chemoradiation for unresectable glioblastoma. Final results of the TEMAVIR study from ANOCEF. This trial did not show much benefit for using Avastin and Irinotecan for newly diagnosed unresectable GBMs. There was no difference in overall survival, however, the patients in the control group were able to cross over when the progressed, and there was about a 2 month advantage in time to progression.
[04/09/2014] Fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery with concurrent temozolomide chemotherapy for locally recurrent glioblastoma multiforme: a prospective cohort study. I am a fan of fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery for GBMs. My sister in law participated in an earlier trial using FSR and a different chemotherapy drug and did very well for about 8 years. She did better than most in that trial but perhaps temodar is a better drug to use along with FSR.
[03/30/2014] Phase II Trial of 7days on/7 days off temozolmide for recurrent high-grade glioma. Looks like we need to find better treatments, although for recurrent anaplastic astrocytoma, it does look promising
[03/13/2014] Deferred use of bevacizumab for recurrent glioblastoma is not associated with diminished efficacy We still do not know the best way to use Avastin. This articles seems to say that it doesn't matter when you start it - at the start, after first, second or third recurrence. It still gives about the same effect.
[03/13/2014] IBTA E-NEWS Form our friends at the IBTA
[03/11/2014] Exclusive: Germany OKs Northwest Bio brain cancer drug, shares soar Great news! DC-Vax can now be sold in Germany. I do not know yet if Americans can go get it and bring it back. If anyone tries, please let me know how it goes.
[02/26/2014] DNAtrix Wins $10.8 to Develop Brain Tumor-Attacking Virus Exciting news.. a $10.8 million grant for brain tumor research! I wish them luck - sounds very interesting
[02/20/2014] Bevacizumab in Glioblastoma — Still Much to Learn This is an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine in response to the reports on the 2 large trials of Avastin for newly diagnosed glioblastoma. These 2 trials both showed a small increase in progression free survival, but no increase in overall survival. However, the had opposite results in quality of life outcomes. Confusing, but the author brings up some good points on how to proceed from here.
[02/13/2014] IBTA Newsletter From our good friends at the IBTA
[02/03/2014] Musella Foundation Awards Brain Tumor Research Grant! This is a fascinating new approach. Instead of targeting one or two specific pathways that drive tumor growth, this one covers over 20 pathways. Hopefully it will not only work, but will also be much harder for the tumor to become resistent and evolve around it! With the design of this trial, we should know pretty quickly if the concept works. It is for newly diagnosed high grade glioma patients, and is only being done at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. IF this shows good results, I am sure it will quickly expand to many major centers.
[12/18/2013] Positive Phase 2 Results from Agenus` Brain Cancer Vaccine Published in Neuro-Oncology Pretty good news on a vaccine trial.... there was no control group but it beat historical controls. Survival (I assume after recurrence) was 11 months for the vaccine, compared to 3 to 9 months for historical controls.
[12/04/2013] Kinex Pharmaceuticals Announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has Granted Orphan Drug Status to KX02 for the Treatment of Gliomas Another tool in the toolbox in the fight against cancer.
[12/04/2013] Data Presented at Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting Demonstrate Tocagen`s Toca 511 Gene Therapy with Toca FC was Well Tolerated and Showed Antitumor Activity in Patients with High Grade Glioma Aside from the exciting news about how the ongoing Tocagen trials are going, there was a poster presentation describing a new clinical trial that injects the virus intravenously. The trial is actually a hybrid - they inject half of the dose IV, then 11 days later, do a surgery to remove whatever tumor is remaining, and inject the rest of the dose. This is exciting because they do the surgery in part to make sure the virus got to all of the tumor cells. IF that is true, then future trials may be completely IV, and may allow diffuse tumors on both sides of the brain. Henry Ford Health System in Detroit is currently enrolling patients for this study. Henry Ford Health System in Detroit is currently enrolling patients for this study.
[11/13/2013] Study Results Show Dose-Intensified Temozolomide Chemotherapy in the Adjuvant Setting Does Not Improve Survival in Patients with GBM Apparently. the standard schedule is better than the dose intensive schedule for GBM patients using Temodar. However, what I would love to see is a trial comparing different lengths of treatment. This trial used up to 12 months of treatment. Overall survivals were about 6 months after they stopped using the Temodar in either arm. Doesn't make sense to me to stop at 1 year.
[11/13/2013] Pharmaceutical Company Starts First Human Trials For Cannabis Treatment For Brain Cancer I like the way this is set up. Although it is too small of a patient population to rely on (I hope they measure IDH1 mutations at the very least), it is a big step in the right direction. If it shows a benefit, then a larger study can be done.
[10/02/2013] Long-term treatment with temozolomide in malignant glioma. It never made sense to me to stop Temodar at 6 months. The reason they always give is that is the length of time used in the trial was 6 months so they use that. However, that 6 months was chosen to allow the trial to conclude quickly. They never tested varying lengths of treatment against each other. The other argument to end treatment early was increased chance of side effects. This article shows in a small group, that it is relatively safe to continue for an extended period of time. There is also the risk of developing a secondary cancer - but that risk is smaller than the original tumor growing back and killing you.
[09/23/2013] Agenus Reports Positive Phase 2 Results For Brain Cancer Vaccine Very good news.
[09/14/2013] Triacetin-based acetate supplementation as a chemotherapeutic adjuvant therapy in glioma. This article shows that - in the lab - a common food additive that has been deemed "safe" by the FDA may have anti tumor properties and in the test tube may help Temodar work better. Of course, this isn't in humans so we do not know yet if it would help people, but I love the idea of using a readily available, cheap, nontoxic to increase the chances that Temodar would help..
[09/06/2013] Pairing cancer treatments shows patient improvement This is for low grade tumors - shows that what worked for high grade tumors - combining Temodar with Radiation, also helps low grade brain tumors
[09/03/2013] Analyst: Celldex aiming at accelerated approval with brain cancer drug There are a few new ways to get treatments approved by the FDA - hopefully the results of the trial will be good enough to convince the FDA to let us get access to this vaccine much sooner than the standard process! I will be at the meeting when they reveal the results - will let you know how it went!
[08/17/2013] Analyst: Celldex aiming at accelerated approval with brain cancer drug This is excellent news. The combination of Celldex and Avastin seems perfect. Celldex is a vaccine against EGFRvIII - which is a marker found on the worst subtype of GBMs. I have heard rumors (the trial is still ongoing) that even when Celldex patients have a recurrence, usually the recurrence is EGFRvIII negative which gives a much better prognosis and more of a chance for other treatments to work. Avastin is an antibody against VEGF which is another growth factor. It is possible that a tumor needs one of these 2 growth factors to grow. Blocking them both makes sense
[08/13/2013] Temodar® (temozolomide) Capsules Now Available as a Generic from Teva! Great news! Temodar is now available as a generic.. should save $$!
[08/02/2013] Brain Tumor Center to Study Vaccine
North Shore center to study glioblastoma patients.
Dr Schulder is on our medical advisory board and one of my favorite brain tumor neurosurgeons.. he is doing a trial of rindopepimut (which used to be known as cdx-110). This is a vaccine against the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor version 3(EGFRvIII) , which is a mutation of the EGFR which is found on normal cells. (The article is wrong on that point). If EGFRvIII is found on your tumor, it is a bad sign - the tumor is of the more aggressive variety because this receptor makes the tumor grow faster. This vaccine inactivates the EGFRvIII. The hope is that it can stop the tumor from growing, or even if it fails, it might be able to convert the tumor into a slower growing tumor with a better prognosis.
Best part is that it is relatively easy injections into the skin - not into the brain.
(Disclosure: the company that makes rindopepimut is a sponsor of our foundation, and Dr Schulder is on our medical advisory board)
[07/03/2013] Phase 2 study of dose-intense temozolomide in recurrent glioblastoma This study showed that after GBM patients failed Temodar on the standard schedule, trying Temodar again in a dose-intense schedule of 21 days on and 7 days off did not help much. Only 13% had even a small response, and only 11% of patients were progression free 6 months later. One interesting note on this paper is that they were incorrect on what the standard therapy of a glioblastoma is. Standard thereapy is defined by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines as well as the FDA approvals of treatments. Both say that the standard treatment of GBM now includes Gliadel Wafer implantation at both the initial surgery as well as subsequent surgeries, and the use of the Novocure Novo-TTF 100a system at recurrence. NCCN Guidelines can be found at: http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/cns.pdf
[07/02/2013] New search feature on virtualtrials.com Should have done this a long time ago! Feel free to make suggestions on improving virtualtrials.com
[06/29/2013] IBTA Newsletter From our friends at the IBTA
[06/01/2013] Genentech Announces Final Phase III Study Results of Avastin Plus Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy in People with an Aggressive Form of Brain Cancer This trial looked at a large number of newly diagnosed GBM patients. 1/2 received the standard treatment of Surgery, Radiation and Temodar during radiation and for 6 months afterwards, or that same treatment + Avastin until recurrence. Temodar was stopped after 6 cycles in both groups. The results weren't as good as we were hoping for but they are a small step foward. They reported no difference in median overall survival, but there was a big increase in progression free survival in the Avastin group ( 8.4 months vs. 4.3 months), as well as the % of patients alive at the 1 and 2 year points. "Seventy-two percent of people treated in the Avastin arm were alive at one year compared to 66 percent of people in the placebo arm (p=0.049). Thirty-four percent were alive at two years compared to 30 percent, respectively (p=0.235)." In human terms this means that although on average both groups lived about the same length of time, the Avastin group was in better shape for most of that time. This is very important. And more of the patients in the Avastin group went on to do much better than the ones in standard of care group. So it looks like Avastin should play a role in the treatment of GBM but the question now become what is the best way to use it? For newly diagnosed or at recurrence? (It is already approved for recurrent GBM). Or perhaps in combination with other treatments. More research is needed. We (The Musella Foundation) has been funding exciting research looking at ways to make Avastin work better. Hopefully we can figure out why it helps some patients and not others, then make it work for all. (Disclosure: Genetech - the makers of Avastin - is one of our sponsors)
[05/26/2013] Restoration of Sensitivity in Chemo - Resistant Glioma Cells by Cold Atmospheric Plasma. [Full Text] This is the full text of the technical article on Cold Atmospheric Plasma. See previous article for layman's version!
[05/18/2013] Isotretinoin maintenance therapy for glioblastoma: A retrospective review. Isotretinoin (Accutane) is a drug approved for acne. Some doctors have been using it as maintanance therapy for GBMs to try to slow down regrowth of the tumors. This article reports on a small number of patients who tried it. There was an amazing increase in progression free survival, but no significant difference in the 2 and 3 year survival numbers. By itself, an increase in progression free survival is meaningful to patients - this means a longer time of feeling relatively good. It also brings up the opportunity to combine it with other treatments and give those other treatments more time to work.
[05/18/2013] Defining pseudoprogression in glioblastoma multiforme. Pseudoprogression means that the MRI scan looks like there is progression when in reality it is not progression. It was rare until we started using Temodar at the same time as radiation, now it occurs in about 12% of the people according to this article (I heard other numbers of about 50%). This article is the first time I saw mention that there is a major survival advantage when you see pseudoprogression - more than double the survival time compared to people who do not get pseudoprogression.
[05/08/2013] Bortezomib overcomes MGMT-related resistance of glioblastoma cell lines to temozolomide in a schedule-dependent manner. Interesting. Best part is the drug is available (off label).. may be worth starting a human trial of it.
[05/04/2013] Agenus trial of brain cancer vaccine shows better survival rate Exciting results from another brain tumor vaccine!
[04/12/2013] J Neurooncol. 2013 Apr 6. [Epub ahead of print] Efficacy and safety of second-line fotemustine in elderly patients with recurrent glioblastoma. Santoni M, Scoccianti S, Lolli I, Fabrini MG, Silvano G, Detti B, Perrone F, Savio G, Iacovelli R, Burattini L, Berardi R, Cascinu S. Clinica di Oncologia Medica, AOU "Ospedali Riuniti", Università Politecnica delle Marche, via Tronto 10/A, 60100, Ancona, Italy, mattymo@alice.it. Abstract Fotemustine (FTM) is a common treatment option for glioblastoma patients refractory to temozolomide (TMZ). Although elderly patients represent a large component of glioblastoma population, the feasibility and the efficacy of second-line FTM are not available in those patients.We retrospectively analyzed the records of glioblastoma patients older than 65 years, receiving FTM at a dose of 70-100 mg/m2 of FTM every week for 3 consecutive weeks (induction phase) and then every 3 weeks (70-100 mg/m2), as second-line treatment.Between January 2004 and December 2011, 65 glioblastoma patients (median age, 70 years; range, 65-79 years) were eligible for this analysis. Sixty-five patients received a total of 364 FTM cycles, with a median of 4 cycles for each patient. After induction, we observed 1 complete response (1.5 %), 12 partial responses (18.5 %), 18 stable diseases (27.7 %), and 34 patients` progressions (47.7 %). Disease control rate was 43.1 %. Median survival from the beginning of FTM therapy was 7.1 months, while the median progression-free survival was 4.2 months, and the 6-months progression free survival rate was 35.4 %. The most relevant grade 3-4 toxicity events were thrombocytopenia (15.3 %) and neutropenia (9.2 %). In the univariate and multivariate analysis, time from radiotherapy to FTM, number of TMZ and FTM cycles and disease control resulted independent prognostic factors.This study showed that FTM is a valuable therapeutic option for elderly glioblastoma patients, with a safe toxicity profile. PMID: 23564276 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Fotemustine is a chemo drug in the same class as BCNU and CCNU. It is available all over the world except the USA. This wasn't a controlled trial so we don't know if it is better than the chemo drugs we have available, but it does show some activity in the elderly after failing with Temodar.
[04/10/2013] Phase 2 study of dose-intense temozolomide in recurrent glioblastoma. This tests the idea that using a different schedule for Temodar 21 days on and 7 off, after Temodar on the standard schedule of 5 days on and 23 off, may work.. In this study - it didn't.
[02/25/2013] Merck KGaA Drug Fails in Late-Stage Brain Cancer Trial I sent a similiar story out in the last news blast, but this article points out that they are still testing this drug on GBM patients with an unmethylated MGMT gene promoter status. These tumors do not respond as well to the standard treatment, and adding a little something extra like this drug may help. Reading between the lines, now that they have the results of the big phase 3 trial, they probably analyzed the outcome in patients who have the methylated vs unmethylated status and must have seen it is worth continuing the trial on unmethylated patients.
A little background on methylation status: there is a test that can determine what % of cells in the tumor have methylated or unmethylated MGMT promotor genes. If the gene is methylated, the gene becomes inactive and can not be used to produce the MGMT protien, which is a repair enzyme. Chemotherapy, such as Temodar, work by damaging the DNA in cells so they can not reproduce. MGMT repairs the damage, which makes the tumor resistent to chemotherapy. So a person who has a high % of methylated MGMT genes will have less repair enzyme and thus better response to chemotherapy than someone who has a low % of methylated MGMT genes.
This make a huge difference. Time to progression of the tumor is half as long in people who have the unmethylated MGMT gene compared to people who have the methylated status.
[02/16/2013] Reversing the Warburg Effect as a Treatment for Glioblastoma. The "Warburg effect" is an observation that cancer cells usually metabolize glucose differently than normal cells. These researchers are trying to change the process back to how it is in normal cells using a relatively simple chemical. This is only in the test tube now and more research is needed before we can tell if it works in people.
[01/27/2013] Optimizing Glioblastoma Temozolomide Chemotherapy Employing Lentiviral-based Anti-MGMT shRNA Technology. I love this type of thinking. It is not in humans yet but I will watch this closely. Basically, MGMT is a protien that can stop Temodar from working. It actually repairs the damage to the DNA that Temodar causes. People with tumors that have low levels of MGMT do better than people with high levels. This project tries to block the MGMT from being created, so it should help people do better.
[01/27/2013] Long-term response in high-grade optic glioma treated with medically induced hypothyroidism and carboplatin: a case report and review of the literature. Interesting approach. Might be applicable to other tumor types
[01/19/2013] IBTA E NEWS JANUARY 2013 This is from our friends at the IBTA
[01/06/2013] Toxicity and survival in primary glioblastoma patients treated with concomitant plus adjuvant temozolomide versus adjuvant temozolomide: results of a single-institution, retrospective, matched-pair analysis. This abstract shows a much smaller overall survival benefit to adding Temodar at the same time as radiation than the "Stupp" report... only a 1.25 month advantage to adding Temodar to radiation. It also points out that there are more side effects when adding Temodar to radiation. They conclude that we should question if the standard therapy is worth it. My thoughts: this is a smaller study and not randomized as the Stupp studt was..so I tend to put more importance on the Stupp study - I wouldn't get rid of the standard therapy yet based on this study but it does show the need for more research.
[12/30/2012] Musella Foundation For Brain Tumor Research & Information, Inc 2012 Highlights Highlights of our work over the year! There is still time to make a tax deductible contribution for 2012!
[12/20/2012] Phase II trial of continuous low-dose temozolomide for patients with recurrent malignant glioma. This abstract shows that continuous low dose Temodar might be useful for recurrent GBMs and Anaplastic Astrocytomas, especially if the patient has not yet failed on Avastin. An interesting side note is they found a smaller % of patients had mutation in EGFR than previously reported. Perhaps that means people with these mutations in general do not do well enough to take part in a trial after having a few recurrences. This has to be taken into consideration for the anti-EGFR trials..
[12/20/2012] Impairment of glioma stem cell survival and growth by a novel inhibitor for Survivin/Ran protein complex. This is fascinating on 2 levels... first - they describe a protien complex Survivin-Ran which may be responsible for making GBM cells resistent to Temodar, then they use a new method to create drugs using computer modeling - the start with the target then engineer a drug on a computer that would attach to the protien complex - and then actually make the drug. And in the test tube it actually works. This is way too early to help us - but something to keep an eye on.
[12/11/2012] IBTA E News December 2012 This is from our friends at the IBTA!
[12/04/2012] Protracted low doses of temozolomide for the treatment of patients with recurrent glioblastoma: A phase II study. This article says that the every other week schedule of low dose Temodar did not work for recurrent glioblastomas who failed the standard schedule of Temodar.
[11/19/2012] Genentech Study Showed That Avastin Helped People with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Live Longer with This was the big news at the Society of Neuro-oncology conference this weekend. There was about a 50% improvement in progression free survival by adding Avastin to the standard treatment, over using the standard treatment alone. This means that patients feel better and can take care of themeselves longer with Avastin than without. However, the question remains when is the best time to use Avastin, right at the start or wait for recurrence. That question is not yet answered. There seems to be (but hasn't been tested yet) about the same time benefit for using at it the time of recurrence rather than at the start. (Although using it at the start allowed patients to functional at the highest level for a longer period of time. ) My own thoughts (and I am not an MD - so take it for what it is worth): My preference would be to enter a clinical trial for newly diagnosed GBM patients and hold off on the Avastin until the time of recurrence. IF you can not enter a trial, then it is a toss-up on when the best time to start Avastin would be. Either way can be argued. There are more trials (such as the Tocagen trial) that now allow you to enter after having had Avastin, so that removes one of the barriers to using Avastin upfront. Disclosure: Genetech is a sponsor of the Musella Foundation
[11/13/2012] Avastin Reduces Brain Necrosis from Radiation This is an exciting article.. it says that using Avastin in combination with stereotactic radiosurgery greatly reduces the chances of developing radiation necrosis from 50% to 3-6%, and almost doubles the average survival! Disclaimer: Genetech - the makers of Avastin - are a sponsor of our organization!
[11/07/2012] Polifeprosan 20, 3.85% carmustine slow-release wafer (Gliadel) in malignant glioma: evidence for role in era of standard adjuvant temozolomide. Gliadel wafer is a biodegradeable impant that can be inserted into the resection cavity after removing a brain tumor. It slowly releases chemotherapy directly to the area most likely to have a recurrence. It was FDA approved about 10 years ago, based on trials run before Temodar was available. This study updates the results to include people using Temodar and shows about the same results.. a small improvement in survival time but it had a major - about 30% - reduced chance of dying for people who used the Gliadel vs the placebo wafer in the trial. There were minimal increases in side effects. Worth considering if you are having a brain tumor surgery - but with one big warning - there are some clinical trials that do not allow people who have used Gliadel. So it is very important to plan out what you want to do after the surgery. It is a very hard decision if your preferred clinical trial doesn't allow for the use of Gliadel.. you trade an approved treatment with a good chance of helping most patients a little and a few patients a lot (gliadel) for an unproven treatment in the trial that has the chance for a bigger improvement - but has not been shown to be safe or effective yet.
[11/07/2012] Hypofractionated Radiotherapy and Stereotactic Boost with Concurrent and Adjuvant Temozolamide for Glioblastoma in Good Performance Status Elderly Patients - Early Results of a Phase II Trial. This study shows that for elderly GBM patients (65-87 years old), it may be possible to cut the number of radiation treatments in half - to 15 visitis in 3 weeks from 30 visits in 6 weeks, and get about the same results. Of course, the results either way aren't good enough and it might be best to try a clinical trial of just about anything. However, if you are going to use the standard treatment, saving 15 sessions will make a big difference in quality of life for those 3 weeks.
[10/10/2012] The addition of temozolomide does not change the pattern of progression of glioblastoma multiforme post-radiotherapy. Interesting article. It says that the addition of Temodar at the same time (and after) as radiation (which is now the standard of care) does NOT change the pattern of recurrence. Most (91%) had recurrence in the same area as the original tumor which is about the same as when they used Temodar only after radiation. The significance is this may mean widening the area radiated won't make much difference.
[09/19/2012] IBTA Newsletter This newsletter is from our friends at the International Brain Tumor Association
[09/16/2012] The impact of repeated surgery and adjuvant therapy on survival for patients with recurrent glioblastoma. This study shows that surgery alone for a recurrence of a GBM is not that useful: it adds on average 1 month to survival (compared to the group that had no treatments), and almost half of the patients had major complications from the surgery. However, combining surgery with chemotherapy gave the best outcome, adding 9 months on average - while chemo alone added only 3 months. This is a small study and apparently wasn't randomized - so we don't know if perhaps people who were in better shape got to get both surgery and chemotherapy, and the patients who were in worse shape got no treatment - which would completely invalidate the results. However, it makes sense that combining the treatments would give the best outcome. Perhaps adding more of the available treatments, like immunotherapy and tumor treating fields would yield even better results.
[09/04/2012] Bevacizumab (Avastin) as first-line therapy for glioblastoma. This article is based on smaller and earlier trials of adding Avastin to the standard of care for glioblastomas. They report an improvment in progression free survival, but only a small improvement in overall survival. We are eagerly awaiting the results of a much larger study - hopefully in 2-3 months - to clarify how best to use Avastin - either right at the start after radiation or wait until recurrence. Right now we really do not know which way is best. Having said that, an improvement in progression free survival is still very important. It means that you can function and enjoy life for a longer time, and that is priceless.
[09/03/2012] IBTA E News August 2012 This is the International Brain Tumor Association E-news letter. The Musella Foundation is not related to this organization - we are just passing it along (with thier permission) because it should be of interest to you!
[07/04/2012] New concept in treating brain tumors: Interlaced Therapy
[06/22/2012] Phase II Study of Concurrent Radiation Therapy, Temozolomide, and Bevacizumab Followed by Bevacizumab/Everolimus as First-Line Treatment for Patients With Glioblastoma.
[06/22/2012] The effects of the NICE Technology Appraisal 121 (Gliadel and Temozolomide) on survival in high-grade glioma.
[06/21/2012] IBTA News
[06/13/2012] Radiotherapy and concomitant temozolomide may improve survival of elderly patients with glioblastoma.
[06/03/2012] Steroid-sparing effects of angiotensin-II inhibitors in glioblastoma patients.
[05/23/2012] IBTA Newsletter
[05/20/2012] Revised glioblastoma classification should improve patient care
[05/01/2012] Efficacy of clinically relevant temozolomide dosing schemes in glioblastoma cancer stem cell lines.
[04/25/2012] Radiotherapy with concurrent or sequential temozolomide in elderly patients with glioblastoma multiforme.
[04/20/2012] IBTA 2012 April E News
[04/06/2012] Phase II Trial of Radiosurgery to Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy-Defined High-Risk Tumor Volumes in Patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme.
[04/03/2012] Impact of the per-operatory application of GLIADEL wafers (BCNU, carmustine) in combination with temozolomide and radiotherapy in patients with glioblastoma multiforme: Efficacy and toxicity.
[04/03/2012] Results of phase I study of a multi-modality treatment for newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme using local implantation of concurrent BCNU wafers and permanent I-125 seeds followed by fractionated radiation and temozolomide chemotherapy.
[04/01/2012] IBTA March 2012 E News
[03/14/2012] Dose dense 1 week on/1 week off temozolomide in recurrent glioma: a retrospective study.
[03/14/2012] Extended adjuvant temozolomide for treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme.
[02/09/2012] Bevacizumab (Avastin) improves quality of life in patients with recurrent glioblastoma.
[12/22/2011] Improved Treatments for Brain Cancers Highlighted at Annual Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Meeting
[12/19/2011] IBTA E News November-December 2011
[12/19/2011] New Treatment Protocol at Westchester Brain Tumor Program Offers a Ray Of Hope When a Deadly Brain Cancer Recurs
[11/10/2011] Glioblastoma survival in the United States before and during the temozolomide era.
[11/10/2011] Temozolomide plus radiotherapy for glioblastoma in a Canadian province: Efficacy versus effectiveness and the impact of O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase promoter methylation.
[11/08/2011] IBTA E News October 2011
[10/31/2011] New Immunotherapy Trial at UCLA for recurrent malignant gliomas
[10/30/2011] Del Mar Pharmaceuticals Initiates Glioblastoma Clinical Trial
[10/22/2011] The challenges of managing glioblastoma multiforme in developing countries: a trade-off between cost and qu ality of care.
[09/25/2011] Swedish`s Ivy Brain Tumor Center Launches Two New Clinical Trials to Treat Brain Cancer
[09/24/2011] Noscapine inhibits tumor growth in TMZ-resistant gliomas.
[09/09/2011] IBTA E NEWS AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2011
[08/19/2011] Phase IB Study of Gene-Mediated Cytotoxic Immunotherapy Adjuvant to Up-Front Surgery and Intensive Timing Radiation for Malignant Glioma.
[08/19/2011] Efficacy of gamma knife radiosurgery for small-volume recurrent malignant gliomas after initial radical resection.
[07/28/2011] Bevacizumab (Avastin)and daily temozolomide (Temodar)for recurrent glioblastoma.
[07/25/2011] Threshold Pharmaceuticals Announces Initiation of Clinical Trial Evaluating TH-302 in Combination with Bevacizumab at University of Texas at San Antonio
[07/19/2011] Metformin plus temozolomide-based chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment for WHO grade III and IV malignant gliomas.
[07/17/2011] The efficacy of carmustine wafers (Gliadel) for older patients with glioblastoma multiforme: prolonging survival.
[07/14/2011] Immunosuppression in Patients with High Grade Gliomas Treated with Radiation and Temozolomide.
[07/05/2011] IBTA E NEWS JUNE 2011
[06/29/2011] Temozolomide in Elderly Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma and Poor Performance Status: An ANOCEF Phase II Trial.
[06/16/2011] Phase II Study of Aflibercept in Recurrent Malignant Glioma: A North American Brain Tumor Consortium Study .
[06/16/2011] Engineering the brain tumor microenvironment enhances the efficacy of dendritic cells` vaccination: implications for clinical trials design.
[06/16/2011] Concomitant temozolomide and radiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone for treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme.
[06/07/2011] Treatment with OPAXIO® (Paclitaxel Poliglumex),Temozolomide and Radiotherapy Results in Encouraging Progression Free Survival in Patients With High Grade Malignant Brain Tumor
[06/06/2011] New Data From Phase 2 Brain Cancer Study With Prophage Series G-200 (HSPPC-96) Shows Improved Overall Survival
[05/31/2011] IBTA E NEWS MAY 2011
[05/07/2011] The Addition of Bevacizumab to Standard Radiation Therapy and Temozolomide Followed by Bevacizumab, Temozolomide and Irinotecan for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma.
[04/27/2011] Cytoreductive surgery of glioblastoma as the key to successful adjuvant therapies: new arguments in an old discussion.
[04/27/2011] Immune Response in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme Treated With Intranodal Autologous Tumor Lysate-dendritic Cell Vaccination After Radiation Chemotherapy.
[04/08/2011] Benefits of interferon-ß and temozolomide combination therapy for newly diagnosed primary glioblastoma with the unmethylated MGMT promoter: A multicenter study.
[03/20/2011] FDA panel: Benefits outweigh risks of non-invasive therapy for glioblastoma
[02/23/2011] Temozolomide in the treatment of high-grade gliomas in children: a report from the Children`s Oncology Group.
[02/22/2011] A multicenter phase I trial of combination therapy with interferon-ß and temozolomide for high-grade gliomas (INTEGRA study): the final report.
[02/21/2011] Controversies in the Adjuvant Therapy of High-Grade Gliomas
[02/12/2011] Retrospective Comparison of Chemoradiotherapy Followed by Adjuvant Chemotherapy, With or Without Prior Gliadel Implantation (Carmustine) After Initial Surgery in Patients With Newly Diagnosed High-Grade Gliomas.
[01/12/2011] A Combined Preclinical Therapy of Cannabinoids and Temozolomide against Glioma.
[01/08/2011] Pseudoprogression following chemoradiotherapy for glioblastoma multiforme.
[01/03/2011] Musella Foundation Online Support Group changes name!
[12/23/2010] ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (IMUC): At the Forefront of Brain Tumor Treatment
[12/23/2010] Peregrine Completes Treatment of Last Patient in Phase II Cotara(R) Brain Cancer Trial
[12/07/2010] Phase II Study of Bevacizumab Plus Temozolomide During and After Radiation Therapy for Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme
[12/01/2010] Bevacizumab Combinations Effective in Phase II Glioblastoma Trials
[11/22/2010] Paclitaxel Poliglumex (OPAXIO®) Combined with Temozolomide and Radiotherapy Demonstrates High Response Rates with Encouraging Progression Free Survival in Malignant Brain Cancer
[11/20/2010] Professor Zvi Ram Presents Phase III Recurrent Glioblastoma Survival and Quality of Life Data from the First Pivotal Study of the NovoTTF-100A at the 15th Annual Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Scientific Meeting
[11/10/2010] Benefits of interferon-ß and temozolomide combination therapy for newly diagnosed primary glioblastoma with the unmethylated MGMT promoter: a multicenter study.
[11/09/2010] Glioblastoma: synergy of growth promotion between CCL5 and NK-1R can be thwarted by blocking CCL5 with miraviroc, an FDA approved anti-HIV drug and blocking NK-1R with aprepitant, an FDA approved anti-nausea drug.
[10/29/2010] Targeted therapy for high-grade glioma with the TGF-{beta}2 inhibitor trabedersen: results of a randomized and controlled phase IIb study.
[10/22/2010] U.S. Blockade Doubly Hurts Cuban Cancer Patients
[10/12/2010] Single-Arm Phase II Study of Conformal Radiation Therapy and Temozolomide plus Fractionated Stereotactic Conformal Boost in High-Grade Gliomas : Final Report.
[08/29/2010] A phase I factorial design study of dose-dense temozolomide alone and in combination with thalidomide, isotretinoin, and/or celecoxib as postchemoradiation adjuvant therapy for newly diagnosed glioblastoma.
[08/15/2010] First-line treatment of malignant glioma with carmustine implants followed by concomitant radiochemotherapy: a mu lticenter experience.
[08/15/2010] A new schedule of fotemustine in temozolomide-pretreated patients with relapsing glioblastoma.
[08/12/2010] Aplastic anemia with concurrent temozolomide treatment in a patient with glioblastoma multiforme.
[07/18/2010] IBTA E-News July 2010
[07/10/2010] A multi-institution phase II study of poly-ICLC and radiotherapy with concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide in adults with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.
[07/09/2010] Temodar Recalled!
[06/18/2010] Can high-dose fotemustine reverse MGMT resistance in glioblastoma multiforme?
[06/08/2010] Exceptional Survival Data, Lower Costs Key to the Competitive Advantage of DCVax(R) - Northwest Biotherapeutics` Vaccine for Multiple Cancers
[06/08/2010] NovoTTF-100A improved response, time to treatment failure in recurrent glioblastoma
[06/07/2010] Initial Experience Involving Treatment and Retreatment With Carmustine Wafers in Combination With Oral Temozolomide: Long-term Survival in a Child With Re lapsed Glioblastoma Multiforme.
[06/05/2010] Interim Positive Results From Phase 2b Brain Cancer Study With Rindopepimut (PF-04948568 or CDX-110) Presented at 46th Annual ASCO Meeting
[06/05/2010] SUCCESSFUL PHASE III CLINICAL TRIAL RESULTS REPORTED FOR NOVOCURE’S NOVEL MEDICAL DEVICE FOR TREATMENT OF RECURRENT GLIOBLASTOMA
[05/22/2010] Palonosetron for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in glioblastoma patients treated with temozolomide: a phase II study.
[05/13/2010] AACR: Targeted Agent Boosts Survival in Brain Cancer
[05/08/2010] Exciting new advances in neuro-oncology: the avenue to a cure for malignant glioma.
[05/08/2010] Continuous low-dose temozolomide and celecoxib in recurrent glioblastoma. /h3>
[05/06/2010] Phase I/IIa Study of Cilengitide and Temozolomide With Concomitant Radiotherapy Followed by Cilengitide and Temozolomide Maintenance Therapy in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma.
[05/06/2010] Phase I/IIa Study of Cilengitide and Temozolomide With Concomitant Radiotherapy Followed by Cilengitide and Temozolomide Maintenance Therapy in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma.
[04/28/2010] Patient Trial of Personalized Two-Drug Therapy for Brain Tumors Launched
[04/23/2010] Cetuximab, bevacizumab, and irinotecan for patients with primary glioblastoma and progression after radiation therapy and temozolomide: a phase II trial.
[04/16/2010] Targeted Agent Blocked Growth of Deadly Brain Cancer in Preclinical Studies
[04/15/2010] IBTA April 2010 E-News
[04/01/2010] Teva UK Limited Launches Temozolomide Capsules
[03/29/2010] Phase II Trial of Continuous Dose-Intense Temozolomide in Recurrent Malignant Glioma: RESCUE Study.
[03/24/2010] Phase II Trial of Continuous Dose-Intense Temozolomide in Recurrent Malignant Glioma: RESCUE Study.
[03/24/2010] A prospective study of temozolomide plus thalidomide during and after radiation therapy for pediatric diffuse pontine gliomas: preliminary results of the Korean Society for Pediatric Neuro-Oncology study.
[03/23/2010] Far-distant metastases along the CSF pathway of glioblastoma multiforme during continuous low-dose chemotherapy with temozolomide and celecoxib.
[03/13/2010] Role of temozolomide in the treatment of newly diagnosed diffuse brainstem glioma in children: experience at a single institution.
[03/09/2010] Patterns and Timing of Recurrence After Temozolomide-Based Chemoradiation for Glioblastoma.
[02/25/2010] MGMT modulates glioblastoma angiogenesis and response to the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib.
[02/20/2010] O6-methy lguanine DNA-methyltransferase methylation status can change between first surgery for newly diagnosed glioblastoma and second surgery for recurrence: clinical implications./h3>
[02/20/2010] Phase II trial of low-dose continuous (metronomic) treatment of temozolomide for recurrent glioblastoma.
[02/13/2010] IBTA E-News February 2010
[01/28/2010] New therapies improving survival in patients with glioblastoma
[01/26/2010] UPDATE 4-Teva wins patent battle over Merck`s Temodar
[01/17/2010] IBTA E-News January 2010
[01/16/2010] Bevacizumab and dose-intense temozolomide in recurrent high-grade glioma.
[01/12/2010] Phase II trial of erlotinib with temozolomide and radiation in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme.
[01/10/2010] Small Addition to Cancer Drug May Make Big Difference
[11/30/2009] Cytotoxic Effects of Temozolomide and Radiation are Additive- and Schedule-Dependent.
[11/12/2009] Six year survival after prolonged temozolomide treatment in a 30-year-old patient with glioblastoma.
[11/05/2009] Therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia after treatment with temozolomide in a patient with glioblastoma multiforme.
[11/01/2009] Intralesional Lymphokine-activated Killer Cells as Adjuvant Therapy for Primary Glioblastoma.
[10/29/2009] ImmunoCellular`s Promising Brain Cancer Vaccine
[10/17/2009] Population-based study of pseudoprogression after chemoradiotherapy in GBM.
[10/05/2009] Malignant Brain Tumors: Chemotherapy Alone Is Just As Effective As Radiation / New Positive Prognostic Factor Found
[09/28/2009] NovoCure, Ltd., Announces the Closing of a Financing Round Including New Investors Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and Index Ventures
[09/24/2009] Bevacizumab (Avastin) Could Play An Important Role In Improving The Neurocognitive Function Of Patients With The Most Aggressive Form Of Brain Cancer
[09/07/2009] Small Cap Stocks Battling Brain Cancer
[09/07/2009] *** Inhibition of serine/threonine phosphatase PP2A enhances cancer chemotherapy by blocking DNA damage induced defense mechanisms
[07/30/2009] International Brain Tumor Alliance Newsletter!
[06/20/2009] Randomized Phase II Trial of Chemoradiotherapy Followed by Either Dose-Dense or Metronomic Temozolomide for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma.
[06/12/2009] Randomized Phase II Trial of Chemoradiotherapy Followed by Either Dose-Dense or Metronomic Temozolomide for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma
[06/12/2009] Overall survival of newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients receiving carmustine wafers followed by radiation and concurrent temozolomide plus rotational multiagent chemotherapy.
[06/01/2009] Pfizer and Celldex Therapeutics Present Update on CDX-110 (PF-04948568) Phase 2 Brain Cancer Studies at 45th Annual ASCO Meeting
[05/22/2009] Retrospective analysis of outcomes among more than 1,000 patients with newly diagnosed anaplastic oligodendroglial tumors.
[05/14/2009] Very late relapses in glioblastoma long-term survivors.
[05/14/2009] Bevacizumab in combination with radiotherapy plus concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma: Update progression-free survival, overall survival, and toxicity.
[05/14/2009] A phase II study of chemoradiation followed by adjuvant temozolomide and poly-ICLC in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma: 12- and 18-month survival data (NABTT 0501).
[05/05/2009] FDA GRANTS ACCELERATED APPROVAL OF AVASTIN FOR BRAIN CANCER
[04/29/2009] IBTA E-Newsletter
[04/01/2009] FDA Advisory Committee Unanimously Recommends Accelerated Approval of Avastin for Previously Treated Brain Cancer (Glioblastoma)
[03/23/2009] Radiobiological evaluation and correlation with the local effect model (LEM) of carbon ion radiation therapy and temozolomide in glioblastoma cell lines.
[03/10/2009] Effects of radiotherapy with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide versus radiotherapy alone on survival in glioblastoma in a randomised phase III study: 5-year analysis of the EORTC-NCIC trial
[03/09/2009] FDA Panel To Review Genentech`s Avastin In Brain Cancer
[03/09/2009] European Commission and United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Both Approve New Options for Patients With Certain Primary Brain Tumors
[03/08/2009] Rechallenge with temozolomide in patients with recurrent gliomas.
[03/08/2009] Tumor regrowth between surgery and initiation of adjuvant therapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.
[03/08/2009] Effect of adding temozolomide to radiation therapy on the incidence of pseudo-progression.
[03/08/2009] Localized BCNU chemotherapy and the multimodal management of malignant glioma.
[03/07/2009] Bradmer provides clinical trial update and announces evaluation of strategic alternatives
[03/05/2009] Brain tumor treatment may increase number of cancer stem-like cells
[03/04/2009] Long-Term Survival of Patients With Glioblastoma Treated With Radiotherapy and Lomustine Plus Temozolomide.
[03/04/2009] Independent association of extent of resection with survival in patients with malignant brain astrocytoma.
[02/19/2009] Update of Long-Term Data on Brain Cancer Patients Receiving DCVax(R)-Brain Continues to Show Striking Improvements in Delay of Disease and Survival
[02/11/2009] Randomized Phase II Trial of Erlotinib Versus Temozolomide or Carmustine in Recurrent Glioblastoma: EORTC Brain Tumor Group Study 26034.
[02/11/2009] Phase II Trial of Temozolomide Plus O6-Benzylguanine in Adults With Recurrent, Temozolomide-Resistant Malignant Glioma.
[02/06/2009] Temozolomide Sales Reach $1 Billion
[02/03/2009] High-dose radiotherapy to 78 Gy with or without temozolomide for high grade gliomas.
[01/22/2009] NOVEL DEVICE SHOWN TO BENEFIT SURVIVAL FOR BRAIN CANCER PATIENTS WHEN COMBINED WITH CHEMOTHERAPY
[01/17/2009] Association Between Hyperglycemia and Survival in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma.
[12/31/2008] Phase II Study of Erlotinib Plus Temozolomide During and After Radiation Therapy in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme or Gliosarcoma.
[12/22/2008] Brain Tumor News Blast - fundraising appeal
[12/19/2008] Open-Label Bites Drug Duo
[12/15/2008] IBTA Newsletter
[12/10/2008] Gliadel (BCNU) wafer plus concomitant temozolomide therapy after primary resection of glioblastoma multiforme.
[11/25/2008] STUDIES SHOW NOVEL DEVICE MAY ENHANCE CHEMOTHERAPY TREATMENT IN BRAIN TUMORS
[11/23/2008] A multi-institutional phase II study on second-line Fotemustine chemotherapy in recurrent glioblastoma.
[11/19/2008] Safety profile of carmustine wafers in malignant glioma: a review of controlled trials and a decade of clinical experience.
[11/19/2008] Phase I/II Trial Erlotinib and Temozolomide With Radiation Therapy in the Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme: North Central Cancer Treatment Group Study N0177.
[11/06/2008] New Treatment Guidelines for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Issued by American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons
[11/05/2008] Bradmer sponsors physician panel to raise awareness of brain cancer treatments (Live Webcast!)
[10/19/2008] Temozolomide for high grade glioma.
[10/19/2008] IBTA E-NEWSLETTER 15 October 2008
[10/17/2008] Sagopilone crosses the blood-brain barrier in vivo to inhibit brain tumor growth and metastases
[10/17/2008] Experience with irinotecan for the treatment of malignant glioma
[10/04/2008] Patterns of relapse and prognosis after bevacizumab (BEV) failure in recurrent glioblastoma (GBM).
[10/04/2008] Update on survival from the original phase II trial of bevacizumab and irinotecan in recurrent malignant gliomas.
[10/04/2008] Phase II trial of talampanel in conjunction with standard radiation (RT) and temozolomide (TMZ) in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM).
[10/04/2008] Effect of EGFRvIII-targeted vaccine (CDX-110) on immune response and TTP when given with simultaneous standard and continuous temozolomide in patients with GBM.
[10/04/2008] Role of a second chemotherapy in recurrent malignant glioma patients who progress on a bevacizumab-containing regimen.
[10/04/2008] Phase I/II study of cetuximab plus temozolomide as radiochemotherapy for primary glioblastoma (GERT)
[10/04/2008] Prospective phase II trial for recurrent high-grade gliomas with capacitive coupled low radiofrequency (LRF) hyperthermia.
[10/03/2008] Comparative analysis of temozolomide (TMZ) versus 1,3-bis (2-chloroethyl)-1 nitrosourea (BCNU) in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients.
[10/03/2008] Persistent outpatient hyperglycemia is independently associated with decreased survival after primary resection of malignant brain astrocytomas.
[10/03/2008] TMZ-BioShuttle - a reformulated Temozolomide.
[10/03/2008] A phase II clinical trial of poly-ICLC with radiation for adult patients with newly diagnosed supratentorial glioblastoma: a North American Brain Tumor Consortium (NABTC01-05).
[09/28/2008] Temozolomide Not Superior to Procarbazine-Based Combination Treatment in Patients With High-Grade Glioma: Presented at ESMO
[09/14/2008] Long-Term Phase I and Phase I/II Trial Data Continue to Show Striking Improvement in Survival of Brain Cancer Patients Who Receive DCVax(R)-Brain
[09/13/2008] Experience with irinotecan (CPT-11) for the treatment of malignant glioma
[09/09/2008] Phase II trial of pre-irradiation and concurrent temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed anaplastic oligodendrogliomas and mixed anaplastic oligoastrocytomas: RTOG BR0131
[09/07/2008] New (alternative) temozolomide regimens for the treatment of glioma
[09/05/2008] New clues found to treat brain cancer
[09/03/2008] Hypofractionated radiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with temozolomide in elderly patients with glioblastoma.
[08/30/2008] Temozolomide rechallenge in recurrent malignant glioma by using a continuous temozolomide schedule: the "rescue" approach.
[08/29/2008] AN UPDATE ON THE EFFECTS OF NEURADIAB ON PATIENTS WITH NEWLY DIAGNOSED GLIOBLASTOMA MULTIFORME (GBM)
[08/29/2008] ET-03. THE EFFICACY OF TEMOZOLOMIDE IN VITRO AND IN PATIENTS WITH NEWLY DIAGNOSED GBM IS ENHANCED BY ADJUVANT EXPOSURE TO ALTERNATING ELECTRIC FIELDS (TTFIELDS)
[08/10/2008] Preliminary Cerepro (R) Phase III Results Meet Primary Endpoint - Operable Primary Malignant Glioma
[08/10/2008] Dose-intensity temozolomide after concurrent chemoradiotherapy in operated high-grade gliomas.
[08/10/2008] Temozolomide preferentially depletes cancer stem cells in glioblastoma.
[07/31/2008] Bradmer initiates enrollment in Phase III GLASS-ART Trial in primary glioblastoma multiforme
[07/17/2008] Bradmer reports progression free survival data from previous Phase II glioblastoma multiforme trials
[07/16/2008] When temozolomide alone fails: adding procarbazine in salvage therapy of glioma
[07/16/2008] Glioblastoma multiforme.
[07/16/2008] Invasive tumor cells and prognosis in a selected population of patients with glioblastoma multiforme.
[06/23/2008] In vitro and in vivo radiosensitization induced by the DNA methylating agent temozolomide.
[06/17/2008] Concurrent radiotherapy with temozolomide followed by adjuvant temozolomide and cis-retinoic acid in children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma
[06/17/2008] Radiochemotherapy with temozolomide as re-irradiation using high precision fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) in patients with recurrent gliomas.
[06/17/2008] Second-line chemotherapy with fotemustine in temozolomide-pretreated patients with relapsing glioblastoma: a single institution experience.
[06/04/2008] A phase I trial of temozolomide and lomustine in newly diagnosed high-grade gliomas of childhood.
[06/04/2008] Management of patients with newly diagnosed malignant primary brain tumors with a focus on the evolving role of temozolomide.
[05/28/2008] Surgeon`s trial study on cancer is hailed
[05/28/2008] Incidence of early pseudo-progression in a cohort of malignant glioma patients treated with chemoirradiation with temozolomide.
[05/28/2008] IBTA Newsletter
[05/24/2008] Hints of Progress in Drugs Treating Brain Cancer
[05/15/2008] Treatment Outcomes of Glioblastoma Multiforme at Community Based Teaching Hospital
[05/05/2008] Modulatory effects of acetazolomide and dexamethasone on temozolomide mediated apoptosis in human glioblastoma T98G and U87MG cells.
[05/04/2008] Clinical features, mechanisms, and management of pseudoprogression in malignant gliomas.
[05/03/2008] Temozolomide three weeks on and one week off as first line therapy for patients with recurrent or progressive low grade gliomas.
[04/20/2008] Phase II study of temozolomide, thalidomide, and celecoxib for newly diagnosed glioblastoma in adults
[04/20/2008] Toxicity from chemoradiotherapy in older patients with glioblastoma multiforme.
[04/06/2008] A retrospective study of the safety of BCNU wafers with concurrent temozolomide and radiotherapy and adjuvant temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients.
[03/30/2008] Safety and pharmacokinetics of dose-intensive imatinib mesylate plus temozolomide: Phase 1 trial in adults with malignant glioma.
[03/30/2008] Phase II Pilot Study of Bevacizumab in Combination With Temozolomide and Regional Radiation Therapy for Up-Front Treatment of Patients With Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme: Interim Analysis of Safety and Tolerability.
[03/18/2008] Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) for glioblastoma multiforme: A phase II study evaluating a prolonged high-dose of boronophenylalanine (BPA).
[03/18/2008] Complete response after one cycle of temozolomide in an elderly patient with glioblastoma and poor performance status.
[03/18/2008] Prolonged and severe myelosuppression in two patients after low-dose temozolomide treatment- case study and review of literature.
[02/27/2008] Treatment of recurrent glioblastoma: can local delivery of mitoxantrone improve survival?
[02/25/2008] A pilot study: 131I-Antitenascin monoclonal antibody 81c6 to deliver a 44-Gy resection cavity boost.
[02/25/2008] Natural history and management of brainstem gliomas in adults : A retrospective Italian study.
[02/25/2008] Phase I and Phase I/II DCVax(R)-Brain Data Continues to Show Significantly Improved Survival Rates for Brain Cancer Patients
[02/15/2008] Immunological responses in a patient with glioblastoma multiforme treated with sequential courses of temozolomide and immunotherapy: Case study
[02/15/2008] Radiotherapy plus concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide for glioblastoma in elderly patients.
[02/15/2008] Nitrosourea efficacy in high-grade glioma: a survival gain analysis summarizing 504 cohorts with 24193 patients.
[02/15/2008] Multi-institutional phase II study of temozolomide administered twice daily in the treatment of recurrent high-grade gliomas.
[02/04/2008] The added value of concurrently administered temozolomide versus adjuvant temozolomide alone in newly diagnosed glioblastoma.
[01/26/2008] Cost-effectiveness of temozolomide for the treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme : a report from the EORTC 26981/22981 NCI-C CE3 Intergroup Study.
[01/13/2008] Antiangiogenic compounds interfere with chemotherapy of brain tumors due to vessel normalization.
[01/13/2008] Temozolomide and resistant glioma cells.
[01/07/2008] Celldex Therapeutics Receives Fast-Track Designation for CDX-110, a Novel EGFRvIII Vaccine for Glioblastoma
[01/05/2008] Proautophagic drugs: a novel means to combat apoptosis-resistant cancers, with a special emphasis on glioblastomas.
[12/21/2007] CONVECTION-ENHANCED DELIVERY OF CINTREDEKIN BESUDOTOX (INTERLEUKIN-13-PE38QQR) FOLLOWED BY RADIATION THERAPY WITH AND WITHOUT TEMOZOLOMIDE IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED MALIGNANT GLIOMAS: PHASE 1 STUDY OF FINAL SAFETY RESULTS.
[12/19/2007] Immunological responses in a patient with glioblastoma multiforme treated with sequential courses of temozolomide and immunotherapy: Case study.
[12/19/2007] Encouraging experience of concomitant Temozolomide with radiotherapy followed by adjuvant Temozolomide in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme: single institution experience.
[12/15/2007] At last, a decent Tx for deadliest brain tumours
[12/09/2007] Adjuvant chemotherapy for adults with malignant glioma: a systematic review.
[12/08/2007] Pilot trial of the rate of response, safety, and tolerability of temozolomide and oral VP-16 in patients with recurrent or treatment-induced malignant central nervous system tumors.
[12/07/2007] Celldex Therapeutics Announces Orphan Drug Designation for CDX-110, a Novel EGFRvIII...
[11/28/2007] Management of glioblastoma.
[11/17/2007] Variation of O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation in serial samples in glioblastoma.
[11/16/2007] Phase 2 study of temozolomide in children and adolescents with recurrent central nervous system tumors: a report from the Children`s Oncology Group.
[11/16/2007] Phase I Trial of Single-Dose Temozolomide and Continuous Administration of O6-Benzylguanine in Children with Brain Tumors: a Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium Report
[10/29/2007] Radiation plus chemo quadruples survival time for fatal brain cancer
[10/19/2007] 200,000 PEOPLE WORLDWIDE AFFECTED EACH YEAR BY HIGHLY MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMOURS
[09/09/2007] Targeted therapies promise new hope for brain cancer patients
[09/01/2007] Methylguanine Methyltransferase Testing in Glioblastoma: When and How?
[09/01/2007] In Reply (to previous coment on Temodar)
[09/01/2007] The Fallacy of Single-Agent Chemotherapy for Cancer
[08/30/2007] Experimental anti-cancer drug made from corn lillies kills brain tumor stem cells
[08/29/2007] Efficacy of Temozolomide Is Correlated With 1p Loss and Methylation of the Deoxyribonucleic Acid Repair Gene MGMT in Malignant Gliomas.
[08/24/2007] Guidelines: Carmustine Implants and Temozolomide for Treatment of Newly Diagnosed High-Grade Glioma
[08/21/2007] YM BIOSCIENCES, EUROPEAN PARTNER, ONCOSCIENCE AG, ANNOUNCES INITIATION OF ADVANCED NIMOTUZUMAB TRIALS IN ADULT GLIOMA AND PANCREATIC CANCER
[07/31/2007] Efficacy and Tolerability of Temozolomide in an Alternating Weekly Regimen in Patients With Recurrent Glioma
[07/03/2007] Safety and feasibility of long-term temozolomide treatment in patients with high-grade glioma
[06/29/2007] Canadian recommendations for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme.
[06/22/2007] Antisense Pharma: Promising Phase IIb Results of Targeted Therapy with AP 12009 in Recurrent Anaplastic Astrocytoma
[06/20/2007] Improved median survival for glioblastoma multiforme following introduction of adjuvant temozolomide chemotherapy.
[06/20/2007] Salvage chemotherapy with procarbazine and fotemustine combination in the treatment of temozolomide treated recurrent glioblastoma patients.
[06/20/2007] Temozolomide-associated organizing pneumonitis.
[06/16/2007] Results of the Phase I Dose-Escalating Study of Motexafin Gadolinium with Standard Radiotherapy in Patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme.
[06/16/2007] Temozolomide and thalidomide in the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme.
[04/22/2007] Enhanced proapoptotic effects of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand on temozolomide-resistant glioma cells.
[04/20/2007] Correlation between O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase and survival in inoperable newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients treated with neoadjuvant temozolomide.
[04/20/2007] Antiangiogenic Agent Shows Promise against Glioblastoma
[04/18/2007] Phase II study of imatinib mesylate and hydroxyurea for recurrent grade III malignant gliomas.
[04/18/2007] A phase I/II study of lomustine and temozolomide in patients with cerebral metastases from malignant melanoma.
[04/18/2007] Tapestry Pharmaceuticals Presents Data on TPI 287 at the AACR Annual Meeting 2007
[04/18/2007] NICE finally approves glioma drugs after finding error in its calculations
[04/13/2007] Funding fears for new cancer drugs
[03/10/2007] Safety and feasibility of long-term temozolomide treatment in patients with high-grade glioma.
[03/10/2007] Complications of a temozolomide overdose: a case report.
[03/10/2007] Dynamics of chemosensitivity and chromosomal instability in recurrent glioblastoma.
[03/04/2007] Chemo wafers helping brain cancer patients live a better life
[01/26/2007] Advances in the Management of Glioblastoma Multiforme: An Expert Interview With Dr. Renato La Rocca From 2006 SNO
[01/17/2007] Experiment at Stony Brook delivers drugs into arteries that feed the brain, targeting aggressive tumors
[01/07/2007] Phase II study of temozolomide and thalidomide in patients with metastatic melanoma in the brain: high rate of thromboembolic events (CALGB 500102).
[01/07/2007] Temozolomide in advanced malignant melanoma with small brain metastases: can we Withhold Cranial Irradiation?
[01/07/2007] MGMT methylation: A marker of response to temozolomide in low-grade gliomas.
[12/23/2006] EntreMed`s Panzem(R) Demonstrates Antitumor Activity In Brain Tumor Model
[12/23/2006] Cancer Research UK welcomes glioma drug ruling
[12/22/2006] Help the Musella Foundation win $50,000!
[12/21/2006] EntreMed`s Panzem(R) Demonstrates Antitumor Activity in Brain Tumor Model
[12/20/2006] Making Glioblastomas Starve - First Clinical Trials In The USA And Germany
[11/28/2006] Bradmer Contracts With Prologue Research to Manage Multi-Center Pivotal Trial of Neuradiab in Brain Cancer
[11/22/2006] The impact of thrombocytopenia from temozolomide and radiation in newly diagnosed adults with high-grade gliomas
[11/22/2006] Phase II trial of lomustine plus temozolomide chemotherapy in addition to radiotherapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma: UKT-03.
[11/22/2006] Phase I study of capecitabine in combination with temozolomide in the treatment of patients with brain metastases from breast carcinoma.
[11/22/2006] A pilot study of primary temozolomide chemotherapy and deferred radiotherapy in elderly patients with glioblastoma.
[11/20/2006] NEOPHARM AnNOUNCES Presentation of FINAL SAFETY DATA FROM PHASE 1 TRIAL OF CINTREDEKIN BESUDOTOX for Newly Diagnosed Malignant Glioma
[11/20/2006] Gliadel(R) Wafer Clinical Data Presented at Society for Neuro-Oncology Meeting
[11/10/2006] Long-term response of pituitary carcinoma to temozolomide. Report of two cases.
[11/10/2006] Temozolomide treatment for newly diagnosed anaplastic oligodendrogliomas: a clinical efficacy trial.
[11/10/2006] Toxicity and efficacy of protracted low dose temozolomide for the treatment of low grade gliomas.
[11/10/2006] Correlations between O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase promoter methylation status, 1p and 19q deletions, and response to temozolomide in anaplastic and recurrent oligodendroglioma: a prospective GICNO study.
[10/17/2006] Local intracerebral administration of O(6)-benzylguanine combined with systemic chemotherapy with temozolomide of a patient suffering from a recurrent glioblastoma.
[10/17/2006] Administration of temozolomide during and after radiotherapy for newly diagnosed high-grade gliomas excluding glioblastoma multiforme.
[10/17/2006] A North American brain tumor consortium (NABTC 99-04) phase II trial of temozolomide plus thalidomide for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme.
[10/17/2006] Temozolomide 3 weeks on and 1 week off as first-line therapy for recurrent glioblastoma: phase II study from gruppo italiano cooperativo di neuro-oncologia (GICNO).
[09/26/2006] Phase II trial of lomustine plus temozolomide chemotherapy in addition to radiotherapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma: UKT-03.
[07/31/2006] Japan approves Schering-Plough`s brain tumor drug
[06/21/2006] Dexamethasone protected human glioblastoma U87MG cells from temozolomide induced apoptosis by maintaining Bax:Bcl-2 ratio and preventing proteolytic activities (Editor`s Note: This article says that Decadron makes Temodar less effective)
[06/12/2006] Early necrosis following concurrent temozolomide and radiotherapy in adult patients with glioblastoma.
[06/12/2006] Combined regimen of temozolomide and liposomal pegylated doxorubicin in glioblastoma--Toxicity and Efficacy.
[06/07/2006] Alternative schedules of adjuvant temozolomide in glioblastoma multiforme: A 6-year experience.
[06/07/2006] Progressive low-grade oligodendrogliomas: response to temozolomide and correlation between genetic profile and O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase protein expression.
[06/07/2006] Radiotherapy and temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma: recursive partitioning analysis of the EORTC 26981/22981-NCIC CE3 phase III randomized trial.
[06/07/2006] Phase I/II Trial of Twice-Daily Temozolomide and Celecoxib for Treatment of Relapsed Malignant Glioma: Final Data
[05/09/2006] M. D. Anderson: Setting the Benchmark in Brain Tumor Treatment
[05/02/2006] Phase II trial of temozolomide plus marimastat for recurrent anaplastic gliomas: A relationship among efficacy, joint toxicity and anticonvulsant status.
[04/28/2006] BLOW TO UK BRAIN TUMOUR PATIENTS AS NICE ANNOUNCES ITS VERDICT ON GROUNDBREAKING THERAPIES
[04/25/2006] Brain Tumor Vaccine Shows Promise
[04/25/2006] NEOPHARM`S CINTREDEKIN BESUDOTOX WELL-TOLERATED IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED MALIGNANT GLIOMA PATIENTS
[04/05/2006] A new approach to treating cancer
[04/03/2006] EntreMed Presents Preclinical Results at AACR for Panzem(R) and ENMD-1198
[03/21/2006] Current strategies in treatment of oligodendroglioma: evolution of molecular signatures of response.
[03/21/2006] Recent advances in the treatment of malignant astrocytoma.
[03/14/2006] Prolonged Lymphopenia Common with Long-Term Temozolomide for Glioma
[03/14/2006] Salvage chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide for recurrent temozolomide-refractory anaplastic astrocytoma.
[03/03/2006] Temodal To Be Funded For Newly Diagnosed Brain Cancer Patients
[02/28/2006] Doctors demand brain cancer drugs
[02/28/2006] Letter to the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP, Secretary of State for Health, from 36 brain tumour specialists.
[02/27/2006] Do not deny these patients a longer life
[02/02/2006] Canada OKs Schering-Plough Cancer Drug
[02/01/2006] Antineoplastons A10 and AS2-1 Show Promise in Recurrent Brain Cancer: Presented at ICACT
[01/30/2006] HEALING HIMSELF
[01/15/2006] U.K. healthcare system about to deny payment of Temodar for brain tumor patients - your help needed now (for U.K. members)
[01/15/2006] UVa doctors work to improve deadly tumor treatment
[01/05/2006] Virus-Drug Combination May Have Synergistic Effect Against Glioblastoma
[12/31/2005] Phase II Study of Imatinib Mesylate Plus Hydroxyurea in Adults With Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme.
[12/02/2005] Systemic Temozolomide Combined with Loco-regional Mitoxantrone in Treating Recurrent Glioblastoma.
[12/02/2005] Phase II trial of temozolomide in children with recurrent high-grade glioma.
[11/16/2005] Technology to Be Used to Study MGMT Methylation Status in Glioblastoma Multiforme Brain Cancer Patients Treated with TEMODAR(R) (Temozolomide) - Schering-Plough and ONCOMETHYLOME Sciences (OMS) Announce License and Collaboration Agreement For Use of OMS Pharmacogenomic Technology
[11/06/2005] THE INTERNATIONAL BRAIN TUMOUR ASSOCIATION (IBTA) AT PARIS CONFERENCE
[11/01/2005] Temozolomide Improves Survival in Glioma: Presented at ECCO
[10/28/2005] Temozolomide after radiotherapy for newly diagnosed high-grade glioma and unfavorable low-grade glioma in children.
[10/19/2005] NeoPharm Investigators Present Preliminary Phase I Data of Cintredekin Besudotox in the Treatment of Malignant Glioma at Initial Diagnosis
[10/19/2005] Brain cancer patients fight an unseen enemy Advice and updated information offered at recent area conference
[10/18/2005] O6–BG May Help Re-Sensitize Cancer Cells to Temodar® in Brain Cancer
[10/05/2005] Inactivation of p53 Sensitizes Astrocytic Glioma Cells to BCNU and Temozolomide, but not Cisplatin.
[10/05/2005] The treatment of high grade gliomas and diffuse intrinsic pontine tumors of childhood and adolescence: a historical - and futuristic - perspective.
[10/05/2005] Phase I trial of temozolomide plus o6-benzylguanine for patients with recurrent or progressive malignant glioma.
[10/05/2005] NEOPHARM ANNOUNCES CINTREDEKIN BESUDOTOX POSTER PRESENTATION AT 55TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CONGRESS OF NEUROLOGICAL SURGEONS
[09/15/2005] IFN-beta down-regulates the expression of DNA repair gene MGMT and sensitizes resistant glioma cells to temozolomide.
[08/29/2005] Perifosine inhibits multiple signaling pathways in glial progenitors and cooperates with temozolomide to arrest cell proliferation in gliomas in vivo.
[08/29/2005] Peregrine Pharmaceuticals and New Approaches to Brain Tumor Therapy (NABTT) Consortium Initiate Cotara(R) Brain Cancer Trial
[08/20/2005] Phase I trial of irinotecan plus temozolomide in adults with recurrent malignant glioma.
[08/09/2005] HER1/EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme.
[07/05/2005] Temozolomide-induced partial response in a patient with primary diffuse leptomeningeal gliomatosis.
[07/02/2005] How Lymphotoxic Is Dose-Intensified Temozolomide? The Glioblastoma Experience (Editor`s Note: Also results of one week on, one week off dosage schedule)
[06/15/2005] P450 enzyme inducing and non-enzyme inducing antiepileptics in glioblastoma patients treated with standard chemotherapy.
[06/15/2005] Phase I study examines biomarkers for response to erlotinib (Tarceva) in glioma
[06/10/2005] TEMODAL(R) Approved in European Union For Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme
[05/26/2005] NeoPharm: brain tumor agent may struggle to overtake Temodar NeoPharm has announced a review of safety data for the ongoing PRECISE trial.
[05/18/2005] ASCO: Pipeline Drug Said to Shrink Recurrent Brain Tumors
[05/17/2005] Guilford Pharmaceuticals Announces Promising Results at ASCO in Study of Newly Diagnosed High Grade Malignant Glioma
[05/11/2005] Combined cimetidine and temozolomide, compared with temozolomide alone: significant increases in survival in nude mice bearing U373 human glioblastoma multiforme orthotopic xenografts.
[05/08/2005] International brain tumour advocacy group established
[05/05/2005] Temozolomide plus thalidomide in patients with brain metastases from melanoma.
[04/30/2005] Antisense Pharma Completes Patient Recruitment for AP 12009 Phase II Trial
[04/26/2005] European Union`s CHMP Recommends Approval of TEMODAL(R) (Temozolomide) for the Most Common and Aggressive Form of Brain Cancer
[04/12/2005] Salvage therapy for primary CNS lymphoma with a combination of rituximab and temozolomide.
[04/12/2005] Salvage PCV chemotherapy for temozolomide-resistant oligodendrogliomas.
[03/22/2005] Temodar.com website redesigned to reflect new FDA approved indication for newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme!
[03/17/2005] Neoadjuvant temozolomide followed by complete resection of a 1p- and 19q-deleted anaplastic oligoastrocytoma: case study.
[03/17/2005] MGMT gene silencing and benefit from temozolomide in glioblastoma.
[03/16/2005] Schering-Plough Brain Cancer Drug Wins Expanded OK
[03/10/2005] Treatment-related myelodysplastic syndrome after temozolomide for recurrent high-grade glioma.
[03/10/2005] Inotek Pharmaceuticals Announces Commencement of Enrollment in Phase 1b/2a Trial for Glioblastoma Multiforme
[03/10/2005] New hope against brain tumors
[03/01/2005] Myriad Initiates Phase 1 Trial of MPC-6827 in Metastatic Brain Cancer
[02/23/2005] Temozolomide (TMZ) combined with cisplatin (CDDP) in patients with brain metastases from solid tumors: a Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group (HeCOG) Phase II study.
[02/02/2005] Rethinking the war on brain tumors - JAMA editorial finds treatments too scattershot
[02/02/2005] Troubling Variations In Brain Cancer Treatment Study Shows Choices Affect Patient Survival
[02/01/2005] Phase II study of temozolomide and cisplatin as primary treatment prior to radiotherapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme patients with measurable disease. A study of the Spanish Medical Neuro-Oncology Group (GENOM).
[01/25/2005] Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) today reported financial results for the 2004 fourth quarter and full year.
[01/03/2005] New weapons target deadly brain cancer
[12/20/2004] Early results show encouragement in treatment of glioblastoma brain tumors.
[12/20/2004] Inotek Pharmaceuticals Announces Commencement of Enrollment in Phase 2 Trial on Lead Compound
[12/19/2004] LIFELINE FOR TUMOUR DAD (
[12/12/2004] NHS refuses to pay for cancer drug which could extend man`s life
[12/09/2004] Continuous low-dose chemotherapy plus inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 as an antiangiogenic therapy of glioblastoma multiforme
[12/06/2004] Second-Line Chemotherapy With Irinotecan Plus Carmustine in Glioblastoma Recurrent or Progressive After First-Line Temozolomide Chemotherapy: A Phase II Study of the Gruppo Italiano Cooperativo di Neuro-Oncologia (GICNO).
[12/01/2004] Role of temozolomide after radiotherapy for newly diagnosed diffuse brainstem glioma in children.
[11/11/2004] Temozolomide for the treatment of recurrent supratentorial glioma: results of a compassionate use program in Belgium.
[10/29/2004] Schering-Plough Reports FDA Grants Priority Review to TEMODAR(R) (Temozolomide) Supplemental New Drug Application for Gliomas (Brain Tumors)
[10/28/2004] Two drugs for a hitherto fatal brain cancer are giving patients a new lease on life.
[10/20/2004] How effective is BCNU in recurrent glioblastoma in the modern era? A phase II trial.
[10/14/2004] Imatinib (STI571) plus hydroxyurea: Safety and efficacy in pre-treated, progressive glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients (pts)
[10/12/2004] Convection-enhanced delivery of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand with systemic administration of temozolomide prolongs survival in an intracranial glioblastoma xenograft model.
[09/29/2004] Trial shows which brain cancer patients benefit from temozolomide
[09/28/2004] Can we afford to add chemotherapy to radiotherapy for glioblastoma multiforme? Cost-identification analysis of concomitant and adjuvant treatment with temozolomide until patient death.
[09/27/2004] Phase II Trial of Temozolomide in Patients With Progressive Low-Grade Glioma
[09/22/2004] Transient local response and persistent tumor control in a child with recurrent malignant glioma: treatment with combination therapy including dendritic cell therapy. Case report.
[09/16/2004] Combined Thalidomide and Temozolomide Treatment in Patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme
[09/16/2004] Phase II Study of Concurrent Continuous Temozolomide (TMZ) and Tamoxifen (TMX) for Recurrent Malignant Astrocytic Gliomas
[08/31/2004] Temozolomide as initial treatment for adults with low-grade oligodendrogliomas or oligoastrocytomas and correlation with chromosome 1p deletions.
[08/22/2004] The effect of temozolomide-based chemotherapy in patients with cerebral metastases from melanoma.
[08/06/2004] Initial chemotherapy in gliomatosis cerebri.
[08/06/2004] Chemotherapy as initial treatment in gliomatosis cerebri: results with temozolomide.
[08/05/2004] NEOPHARM INITIATES PHASE I STUDY OF IL13-PE38QQR IN PATIENTS AT INITIAL DIAGNOSIS OF MALIGNANT GLIOMA
[07/27/2004] Temozolomide in paediatric high-grade glioma: a key for combination therapy?
[07/20/2004] Immunochemotherapy with rituximab and temozolomide for central nervous system lymphomas.
[07/12/2004] Correction: New Medicare Drug Program Does NOT include Temodar!
[07/10/2004] Adding Temozolomide (Temodar®) to Radiation Increases Survival in Glioblastoma Multiforme
[07/08/2004] Cooperative function of Chk1 and p38 pathways in activating G2 arrest following exposure to temozolomide.
[07/08/2004] Distinct responses of xenografted gliomas to different alkylating agents are related to histology and genetic alterations.
[07/04/2004] Medicare to Extend Access to Certain Drugs for Beneficiaries with Serious and Chronic Illnesses [Editor`s Note: includes Temodar!]
[06/15/2004] One week on/one week off: a novel active regimen of temozolomide for recurrent glioblastoma.
[06/08/2004] Drug treatment is first major improvement in brain cancer in decades
[06/08/2004] Temozolomide for the treatment of recurrent glioma: Results of a compassionate use program in Belgium.
[06/08/2004] Temozolomide combined with radiation as first-line treatment in primary glioblastoma multiforme: Phase I/II-study.
[06/08/2004] Temozolomide (TMZ) and lomustine (CCNU) in high grade glioma (HGG) patients: Phase I study.
[06/08/2004] Specific therapy for high-grade glioma by convection-enhanced delivery of the TGF-β2 specific antisense oligonucleotide AP 12009.
[06/08/2004] Second line BCNU plus CPT-11 chemotherapy in recurrent glioblastoma (GBM): Phase II study of GICNO (Italian Neuro-Oncology Group).
[06/08/2004] Phase II trial of functional imaging-optimized stereotactic fractionated radiotherapy plus temozolomide for recurrent high-grade glioma.
[06/08/2004] Phase I/II trial of a twice-daily regimen of temozolomide and celecoxib for treatment of relapsed/refractory glioblastoma multiforme and anaplastic astrocytoma.
[06/08/2004] PCV and/or TMZ chemotherapy in 255 gliomas. Analysis of the clinical experience from a neuro-oncology data-base.
[06/08/2004] One week on/one week off regimen of temozolomide for recurrent glioblastoma: A phase II study.
[06/08/2004] Imatinib (STI571) plus hydroxyurea: Safety and efficacy in pre-treated, progressive glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients (pts).
[06/08/2004] Imatinib (STI 571) is active in patients (PTS) with high-grade gliomas progressing on standard therapy.
[06/08/2004] Carboplatin and etoposide (CE) chemotherapy in patients with recurrent or progressive oligodendroglial tumors.
[06/08/2004] Adjuvant chemotherapy with temozolomide and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in the first-line therapy of patients with glioblastoma ¨C a phase-II trial.
[06/08/2004] A phase I/II trial of PTK787/ZK 222584 (PTK/ZK), a novel, oral angiogenesis inhibitor, in combination with either temozolomide or lomustine for patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
[06/08/2004] Temozolomide for the treatment of brain metastases associated with metastatic melanoma: a phase II study.
[06/08/2004] Concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ) and radiotherapy (RT) for newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Conclusive results of a randomized phase III trial by the EORTC Brain & RT Groups and NCIC Clinical Trials Group.
[05/18/2004] Phase II study of temozolomide without radiotherapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme in an elderly populations.
[05/13/2004] DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
Pediatric Subcommittee of the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting [Note: Involves Temodar]
[05/04/2004] First-Line Chemotherapy With Cisplatin Plus Fractionated Temozolomide in Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme: A Phase II Study of the Gruppo Italiano Cooperativo di Neuro-Oncologia
[04/21/2004] Temozolomide for treatment-resistant recurrent meningioma.
[04/15/2004] Temozolomide as first-line agent in treating high-grade gliomas: phase II study.
[04/15/2004] Combined thalidomide and temozolomide treatment in patients with glioblastoma multiforme.
[04/15/2004] The effect of sequential radiochemotherapy in preirradiated malignant gliomas in a phase II study.
[04/15/2004] Phase II study of neoadjuvant 1, 3-bis (2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea and temozolomide for newly diagnosed anaplastic glioma: a North American Brain Tumor Consortium Trial.
[04/02/2004] Guilford Presents Novel Research at the 95th Annual Meeting of The American Association for Cancer Research
[02/23/2004] Monitoring temozolomide treatment of low-grade glioma with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
[02/17/2004] Brain Scans Used to Monitor Effect of Cancer Drug
[01/29/2004] Pharmacyclics Initiates Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Xcytrin Plus Temodar for the Treatment of Refractory Brain Tumors
[12/10/2003] Oligodendroglioma and anaplastic oligodendroglioma: clinical features, treatment, and prognosis.
[11/17/2003] Current status of malignant glioma chemotherapy - hype or hope?
[11/14/2003] U.S. drug sales leave Canada short
Lack of two crucial drugs could affect patients with leukemia and brain tumours
[11/03/2003] Temozolomide Stops Growth of Gliomas in Long-term Study
[11/03/2003] Research on Brain Tumor Drug Continues
[10/22/2003] Update to story on GBM survival statistics
[09/03/2003] Inhibition of telomerase activity in malignant glioma cells correlates with their sensitivity to temozolomide.
[08/21/2003] New brain cancer treatment extends survival for more patients
Patients stay home, take a pill instead of IV chemotherapy
[08/11/2003] Tarceva: fast track approval opportunities
[07/22/2003] Phase 1 study of temozolamide (TMZ) combined with procarbazine (PCB) in patients with gliomas.
[07/01/2003] Phase II Study of First-Line Chemotherapy With Temozolomide in Recurrent Oligodendroglial Tumors: The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Brain Tumor Group Study 26971.
[06/16/2003] Phase II Evaluation of Temozolomide and 13-cis-Retinoic Acid for the Treatment of Recurrent and Progressive Malignant Glioma: A North American Brain Tumor Consortium Study.
[06/14/2003] Up-front chemotherapy temozolomide in the treatment of Gliomatosis Cerebri: Analysis of 33 patients
[06/14/2003] A phase I trial of extended daily dosing of temozolomide and BCNU for malignant gliomas after radiation therapy
[06/14/2003] Phase I trial of temozolomide plus O6-benzylguanine in the treatment of patients with recurrent or progressive cerebral anaplastic gliomas
[06/14/2003] Temozolomide plus celecoxib for treatment of malignant gliomas
[06/14/2003] Temozolomide chemotherapy for progressive low grade glioma
[06/14/2003] Survival analysis for patients with primary brain tumors treated with temozolomide
[06/14/2003] A phase II trial of temozolomide and oral VP-16 for adults with recurrent malignant glioma
[06/14/2003] Phase II multicenter study of 7/7 dosing of temozolomide (TMZ) in patients (pts) with newly diagnosed pure and mixed anaplastic oligodendroglioma (AO/MAO)
[06/14/2003] Phase I/II study of combination temozolomide (TMZ) and irinotecan (CPT-11) for recurrent malignant gliomas: A North American Brain Tumor Consortium (NABTC) study
[06/14/2003] Safety and efficacy of temozolomide concomitant and sequential to radiotherapy in glioblastoma multiforme: Results of a phase II multicentric study
[06/14/2003] Combination temozolomide (T) and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (C) in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)
[06/14/2003] Preradiation combination of temozolomide (TMZ) and BCNU as primary treatment before radiotherapy (RT) in inoperable newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)
[06/14/2003] Phase II study of neoadjuvant BCNU and temozolomide for newly diagnosed anaplastic glioma
[06/14/2003] Phase II trial of daily oral temozolomide and thalidomide in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme before radiation therapy
[06/14/2003] Temozolomide in glioblastoma: 4 years` experience with monthly or fortnigthly schedule
[06/14/2003] First line chemotherapy with temozolomide (TMZ) in recurrent or progressive oligodendroglioma
[06/14/2003] Combined thalidomide and temozolomide treatment in patients with glioblastoma multiforme
[06/07/2003] Tarceva (erlotinib HCI) Shows Encouraging Safety Profile and Activity in Phase I Clinical Study in Patients with Malignant Glioma
[05/31/2003] Drug Maker Schering-Plough Faces Probe
[05/20/2003] Metabolic Activation of Temozolomide Measured in Vivo Using Positron Emission Tomography
[05/12/2003] Impact of chromosome 1p status in response of oligodendroglioma to temozolomide: preliminary results.
[04/29/2003] Temozolomide as an alternative to irradiation for elderly patients with newly diagnosed malignant gliomas.
[04/29/2003] The emerging role of irinotecan (CPT-11) in the treatment of malignant glioma in brain tumors.
[04/29/2003] Irinotecan in the treatment of glioma patients.
[04/08/2003] Phase I study of temozolomide and escalating doses of oral etoposide for adults with recurrent malignant glioma.
[04/01/2003] Delayed repletion of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase resulting in failure to protect the human glioblastoma cell line SF767 from temozolomide-induced cytotoxicity.
[04/01/2003] Case report: a patient with primary CNS lymphoma treated with temozolomide to complete response.
[04/01/2003] Case report: a patient with primary CNS lymphoma treated with temozolomide to complete response.
[03/26/2003] Second-line chemotherapy with temozolomide in recurrent oligodendroglioma after PCV (procarbazine, lomustine and vincristine) chemotherapy: EORTC Brain Tumor Group phase II study 26972
[03/15/2003] Treatment Benefits Elderly Brain Cancer Patients
[03/12/2003] Impact of Chromosome 1p Status in Response of Oligodendroglioma to Temozolomide: Preliminary Results
[03/12/2003] Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid Pharmacokinetics of Intravenous Temozolomide in Non-human Primates
[03/03/2003] Use of Temozolomide with Other Cytotoxic Chemotherapy in the Treatment of Patients with Recurrent Brain Metastases from Lung Cancer
[02/25/2003] Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Receives FDA Approval for its Cotara(TM) Phase III Registration Trial Design for Brain Cancer
[02/18/2003] Phase II Trial of Temozolomide in Patients With Progressive Low-Grade Glioma.
[02/11/2003] Temozolomide induces apoptosis and senescence in glioma cells cultured as multicellular spheroids.
[02/04/2003] A prospective study on glioblastoma in the elderly.
[01/21/2003] A prospective study on glioblastoma in the elderly
[12/28/2002] Temozolomide in combination with interferon alpha-2b in patients with metastatic melanoma.
[12/21/2002] New York Brain Tumor Project Launched at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center
[12/19/2002] Cancer patient sues HMO to cover chemotherapy drug
[12/19/2002] Temozolomide in Malignant Gliomas of Childhood: A United Kingdom Children’s Cancer Study Group and French Society for Pediatric Oncology Intergroup Study <
[10/16/2002] Hemorrhagic Cystitis as an Unexpected Adverse Reaction to Temozolomide: Case Report
[09/16/2002] The Apurinic/Apyrimidinic Endonuclease Activity of Ape1/Ref-1 Contributes to Human Glioma Cell Resistance to Alkylating Agents and Is Elevated by Oxidative Stress1
[09/16/2002]
[09/05/2002] Phase II Randomized Trial of Temozolomide and Concurrent Radiotherapy in Patients With Brain Metastases.
[08/25/2002] Case Report: A Patient with Primary CNS Lymphoma Treated with Temozolomide to Complete Response
[08/15/2002] Temozolomide as second-line chemotherapy for relapsed gliomas.
[05/26/2002] Use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in malignant gliomas treated with temozolomide (TMZ) MRS may increase sensitivity of traditional MRI techniques for detecting tumor progression or response and our observations of tumor response by MRI suggest that multi-voxel MRS is crucial to evaluating response for inhomogeneous tumors (such as oligodendrogliomas).
[05/26/2002] A phase I study of temozolomide (Temodar) and escalating doses of oral VP-16 for adults with recurrent malignant glioma The maximum tolerated dose of this combination in this heavily treated group of patients with recurrent malignant glioma is temozolomide 150 mg/m2/d for 5 days + oral VP-16 50 mg/m2/d for 12 days.
[05/26/2002] First line chemotherapy with cisplatin plus fractionated temozolomide (bid) in recurrent glioblastoma (GBM). This new regimen of DDP plus bid TMZ is effective in chemonaive recurrent GBM, with acceptable toxicity
[05/26/2002] Phase II study of temozolomide (TMZ) without radiotherapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) in an elderly population TMZ without radiotherapy may offer a safe, convenient, and efficient therapeutic alternative in elderly patients with newly diagnosed GBM.
[05/26/2002] Phase II trial with carboplatin (CBCDA) and etoposide (VP-16) in recurrent high grade gliomas In this clinical trial CBCDA + VP-16 has shown activity in recurrent AA and GBM, with a good toxicity profile.
[05/26/2002] Role of temozolomide (TMZ) for brain relapsed tumors: preliminary results Use of temodar as sole chemotherapy agent showed positive results in pts who had already had surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy and had recurrence of tumor.
[05/26/2002]
EORTC brain tumor group study 26971: first line chemotherapy with temozolomide in recurrent oligodendroglial tumors; a phase II study
Temador used as first chemotherapy for recurrent oligodendroglial tumors showed 54% partial response; phase III study to compare temador to PCV is indicated.
[05/26/2002] Randomized phase II study of temozolomide (TMZ) with and without the matrix metalloprotease (MMP) inhibitor prinomastat in patients (pts) with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) following best surgery and radiation therapy No significant difference between survival rate of pt treated with temodar + prinomastat vs temodar + placebo.
[05/26/2002] Safety profile and activity of high-dose temozolomide given daily x 3 every 2 weeks in patients with primary brain tumors. Temador was given safely at escalated dosages on days 1-3 and 14-16 every 28 days.
[05/24/2002] Novel use of Gliadel for gliomas
[10/23/2001] Schering-Plough Reports Sales, Earnings for 2001 Third Quarter, First Nine Months (PR Newswire)
...Third quarter worldwide sales of TEMODAR® (temozolomide), for treating certain types of brain tumors, were $45 million, up 20 percent....
- Oct 23 6:47 AM ET
[10/18/2001] Thalidomide: Single-handed Cancer Fighter? (HealthSCOUT)
...After surgery to remove the first tumor, two other sores appeared nearby.......When an immune-stimulating vaccine didn`t shrink the new tumors, the man began taking 200 milligrams a day of thalidomide....... thalidomide and another cancer drug, temozolomide, could treat melanoma that had spread to the brain....
- Oct 18 4:05 AM ET
[07/25/2001] Schering-Plough Reports Sales, Earnings for 2001 Second Quarter, First Half (PR Newswire)
...Second quarter worldwide sales of TEMODAR® (temozolomide), for treating certain types of brain tumors,...
- Jul 25 6:48 AM ET
[06/28/2001] Schering-Plough Reviews Pharmaceutical Research and Business Progress (PR Newswire)
... EU and United States for treating certain types of brain cancer;...... inhibitor in Phase II studies for treating various solid tumors....
- Jun 28 10:13 AM ET
[05/08/2001] National Brain Tumor Foundation Recognizes Pharmacyclics and Schering-Plough With Merit Award for Advancing Brain Tumor Research (PR Newswire)
The National Brain Tumor Foundation announced today that its first annual Award of Merit will be given jointly to Pharmacyclics, Inc. and Schering-Plough Corporation for their contributions and ongoing commitment to researching and developing treatments for brain tumors.
- May 08 7:30 AM ET
[05/08/2001] Pharmacyclics Receives National Brain Tumor Foundation`s Award of Merit for Advancing Brain Tumor Research (PR Newswire)
Pharmacyclics, Inc. announced today that The National Brain Tumor Foundation has given its first annual Award of Merit jointly to Pharmacyclics, Inc. and Schering-Plough Corporation for their scientific and clinical contributions and ongoing commitment to researching and developing treatments for brain tumors.
- May 08 7:31 AM ET
[04/25/2001] Tularik Announces 2001 First Quarter Financial Results (Business Wire)
...This feature should allow it to retain activity in multi-drug resistant tumors.......In addition, T67 is able to cross the blood brain barrier, suggesting potential utility in the treatment of brain cancer....
- Apr 25 7:08 AM ET
[04/17/2001] Schering-Plough Reports Sales, Earnings for 2001 First Quarter (PR Newswire)
...Also contributing to first quarter worldwide sales were TEMODAR® (temozolomide), for treating certain types of brain tumors, with sales of $43 million; INTEGRILIN®...
- Apr 17 6:58 AM ET
[03/14/2001] Brain Cancer Patients Get Hope From Pill (KITV TheHawaiiChannel.com)
According to the Brain Tumor Society, more than 100,000 Americans will be diagnosed with a brain tumor over the next year. In children and young adults, brain tumors are the second leading cause of cancer death. The cause is unknown, but certain factors can increase its risk, such as exposure to radiation or having an impaired immune system. In rare cases, brain tumors run in families.
- Mar 14 10:22 PM ET
[01/25/2001] Schering-Plough Reports Sales, Earnings for 2000 Fourth Quarter and Full Year (PR Newswire)
...; TEMODAR® (temozolomide), for treating certain types of brain tumors, with sales of $33 million, up 73 percent; and REMICADE®...
- Jan 25 6:53 AM ET
[10/24/2000] Schering-Plough Reports Sales, Earnings for 2000 Third Quarter, First Nine Months (PR Newswire)
Schering-Plough Corporation today reported that third quarter 2000 diluted earnings per share grew 14 percent to 40 cents on net income of $591 million versus 35 cents per share on net income of $518 million in 1999.
- Oct 24 6:59 AM ET
[04/25/2000] Schering-Plough Annual Meeting Highlights Worldwide Performance, Commitment to Pharmaceutical Research (PR Newswire)
Schering-Plough`s results clearly demonstrate that we are pursuing the right strategies for growth in a highly competitive global pharmaceutical industry,~~~ Richard Jay Kogan, chairman and chief executive officer, told shareholders at the annual meeting here today.
- Apr 25 2:58 PM ET

Brain Tumor News Articles About Temodar or Temozolomide

NCCN Categories of Evidence and Consensus

EORTC brain tumor group study 26971: first line chemotherapy with temozolomide in recurrent oligodendroglial tumors; a phase II study

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