Long-term survival of patients suffering from glioblastoma multiforme treated with tumortreating fields.
This article reports long term results of the first Novocure TTF device trial: 4 out of 20 patients GBM (20%) alive, in good health and no longer receiving any treatment with no clinical or radiological signs of recurrence more than 7 YEARS after starting the trial! (2 were newly diagnosed, 2 were recurrent when they started the trial).
This is amazing. The expected 7 year survival rate is about 4%, so you would expect less than 1 of the original 20 patients to survie. This is 500% better.
Disclaimer: The company that makes the Novocure TTF device is a sponsor of our organization.
A phase I/II trial of vandetanib for patients with recurrent malignant glioma. This article reports the results of clinical trial of the drug Vandetanib (Caprelsa). This drug is FDA approved for thyroid cancer and readily avaialble. It is not approved for brain tumors.On brain tumors, it did not show good results when used alone. My thoughts are that this type of treatment needs to either be individualized - used only when you know the patient's tumor overexpressed the targets, or as part of a cocktail where it is combined with other treatments to block multiple pathways at once so the tumor can not evade it.
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!
Multiple resections for patients with glioblastoma: prolonging survival. This study shows that having multiple surgeries for glioblastomas does improve average survival. Seems obvious - but in the past some doctors would advise that a 3rd or 4th surgery is a waste of time. This shows that each surgery does extend survival by months.. those moneths can be used to try another treatment.. increasing your chances of beating the tumor.
