Shared cancer neoantigens: Making private matters public
This is for a new treatment for pediatric brain tumors that have a certain mutation. Almost all DIPG patients have it and some high grade glioma patients have it, especially those near the midline of the brain. Fascinating but highly technical article. Bottom line is that it led to a clinical trial for kids with this mutation.
Voyager Pediatric System Granted Humanitarian Use Designation This is interesting.. the FDA apparently approved a device without requiring any proof that it helps at all. My first instinct was to dismiss it as nonsense, but the press release says that Dr. Michael Prados is on the scientific advisory board - he is one of the best neuro-oncologists in the world, so we cannot dismiss this. I made the same mistake with Optune - I completely dismissed it at first glance, until I saw the research results and met patients who did well with it. This works in a completely different way than Optune.
Secretive Mexican brain cancer clinic to be investigated by Australian expert It doesn't sound like they are going to be open to investigations. They are currently treating 70 patients at a cost of $300,000 per patient. If the treatment worked, they would have published and patented it and make a fortune helping patients all over the world. If they are not sure it works, then they need to keep it secret so they can scam rich foreigners.
As a reminder, some drugs, like Avastin, can make a tumor disappear from a scan even though it is still there. So I am not that impressed with the scan results. However, the article does say there is some evidence of living longer, which would impress me. I hope they let the expert investigate.
