New brain tumor videos added to virtualtrials.com video library The Together in Hope 2011 - Houston, TX May 20-22, 2011 patient conference - put on by MD Anderson Brain Tumor Center, was just added to our video library (with permission). Although it is a little old, it is not out of date and worth watching!
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
New ALK Inhibitor 'Fantastically Active' AP26113 is a second-generation ALK and ROS1 inhibitor that seems in vitro to also have some activity against the activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and T790M. It is in clinical trials for lung cancer. I mention it here because it looks like it may work for brain mets from lung cancer. They report: 4 out of 5 central nervous system deposits responding, and we are also getting duration of response data.
