The latest news:

• Surgery of high-grade gliomas guided by fluorescence: A retrospective study of 22 patients.         I know it seems obvious, but this study shows that removing more tumor helps people live longer.  The difference between a total resection and a sub total resection is 8 months in overall survival:  12 months vs 20 months.  This is with the simple addition of a dye that lets surgeons better visualize where the tumor is.   This dye (Gliolan) is approved in Europe but the FDA in the USA is dragging it's feet in getting it approved for us. 
  



• Sustainable release of carmustine from biodegradable poly[(d,l)-lactide-co-glycolide] nanofibrous membranes in the cerebral cavity: in vitro and in vivo studies.        This is way too early - not in humans yet - but very interesting.  Gliadel wafers - according to this article - release chemotherapy for 5 days after being implanted during a brain tumor surgery, and offers a small (but important) benefit.  They describe a new way to release chemo for 6 weeks - which may help much more.
  



• 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
  



• Durable complete remission of a brainstem glioma treated with a combination of bevacizumab and cetuximab.         Obviously, the experiances of 1 patient does not prove anything, but this is an interesting combination.  There is a trial of cetuximab for Glioblastomas, using a super selective intra arterial delivery -which allows a much higher dose to the tumor.  Combining it with Avastim seems like a reasonable choice.
  



• 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.