Results of the NeuroBlate System first-in-humans Phase I clinical trial for recurrent glioblastoma. Neuroblate is the new name for what was called the AutoLLT system. It is an fda approved treatment for brain tumors which uses lasers to directly kill tumor cells. This reports very good results on a small trial of patients with recurrent gbms. (Remember - small trials can give an indication that a treatment is effective, but the larger the trial, themore sure we can be that something actually works. There were many cases where success in small trials did not pan out in larger trials).
Having said that, this is a new option for patients with recurrent GBMs. I went to a lecture on it recently where they showed some pretty amazing before and after MRIs as well as results for other tumor types.
Feds to cut Medicare payments for cancer-fighting Gamma Knife, thanks to Congress This is an interesting situation. The companies that make competing radiosurgery tools somehow managed to first get Medicare to pay double for one tool, then the other manufature managed to get them to reverse the decsion and pay the same fo the procedure no matter which tool is used.
I do not know how much these things cost - but I would hate to see us lose access to one of the tools due to these cuts. On the other hand, I always felt there should be no economic incentive for a doctor to use one tool over the other. Ideally the decision should be based on what is better for the patient than how much they will earn for using one over the other.
Radiation therapy new cancer cure The headline is a little overstated, but this is worth looking at. Boron Neurtron Capture Therapy is an old treatment where a boron compound is given to the patient and it accumulates in the brain tumor. A neurton beam is then aimed at the tumor and it reacts with the boron to kill the cells that have taken up the boron and leave the other cells alone.
The problem was that the boron compounds used were not getting into all of the brain tumor cells and some were getting into normal cells. It was a small improvement over standard radiation therapy.
Now there are better ways of getting the boron into the tumor cells and sparing the normal cells so they are trying again.
