The latest news:

• Driving glioblastoma growth by alternative polyadenylation         This may lead to a better way to treat brain tumors.
  



• A New Study Reveals Longer Survival Outcomes For Patients With Malignant Brain Tumors         This press release talks about a different way to aim the Gamma Knife. Instead of just hitting the tumor, they try to predict the most likely path for it to grow and treat that area also.  Sounds like a great idea.
  



• Brain tumor invasion along blood vessels may lead to new cancer treatments         This reinforces the theory that Dr John Boockvar presented at one of our conferences (see http://virtualtrials.com/video2012.cfm?video=201202) : namely that the most aggressive  tumor cells migrate along the blood vessels and those are the ones we need to target. Dr Boockvar is using intra-arterial avastin to target this "tumor cell niche".
  



• 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
  

BrainTumor Co-Payment Assistance Program Status:

• OPEN to new applicants