The latest news:

• Society for Neuro Oncology annual meeting, Scottsdale Arizona, November 17-20 2016         The SNO meeting is the most important brain tumor meeting of the year.  There were an overwhelming number of excellent presentations. This is Stephen Western's (our medical writer) thoughts on the most important ones.  We will be discussing them in our online support group, braintumor-treatments (https://virtualtrials.com/braintumor-treatments.cfm).  Feel free to join the conversation and add your highlights! These presentations show steady progress. We are getting close to a major breakthrough. I have been going to these meetings for many years and have never seen so many talk about 8 to 10 year and even longer survival in so many patients.
  



• Help Us Better Understand Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) Patient Experiences         This is from our friends at the Patient Alliances. They are looking for patients or caregivers to fill out a survey.   Please help out! They are making a donation to the Musella Foundation to encourage people to help!  If you contact them, tell them the Musella Foundation referred you!
  



• Dr. Reardon on the KEYNOTE-028 Trial of Pembrolizumab for GBM        Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is approved for other types of cancer and can be used off label for GBMs.  This shows pretty good results, but it is a small trial and more research needs to be done.
  



• Clinical and Pre-Clinical Data on Mustang Bio’s MB-101 (IL13R?2-specific CAR T cells) for the Treatment of Glioblastoma (GBM) Presented at the 21st Annual Meeting and Education Day of the Society for Neuro-Oncology         CAR T Cell therapy has been one of the most promising therapies in other types of cancer (although a large CAR T Cell trial for leukemia was recently placed on hold due to a few treatment related deaths). Here the researchers bring it to GBMs, and shows early signs of it helping.  More work needs to be done to optimize the delivery and the targets (Other researchers are using CAR T Cells targeting EGFRvIII see clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02664363) .  This study targeted IL13Rα2, which is another good target, but neither target is presnet in 100% of tumors. Perhaps combining them would reach the majority of patients.
  



• ZIOPHARM Announces Clinical Data on Ad-RTS-hIL-12 Demonstrates Survival Benefits in Patients with Recurrent Brain Cancer         Very impressive results for a new type of gene therapy.  
  

BrainTumor Co-Payment Assistance Program Status:

• CLOSED to new applicants