ERC-USA Initiates Therapy Under Right to Try Law With First Patient In California Using Investigational Compound ERC1671 for Treatment of Glioblastoma This is the first case I heard of where a brain tumor patient was able to get a treatment under the "Right To Try" laws. I do not know what the costs are (if anyone finds out - please let me know). This is one of the more exciting vaccines. It is made with fresh tumor sample from the patient AND with tumor samples from 3 other people with the same tumor type. The idea is that should allow the vaccine to hit any of the current targets in your tumor, but also prevent the tumor from mutating around the vaccine - since the most common mutations were picked up from the donors!
Musella Foundation awards 2 grants! The first grant is for the development of a new type of vaccine for the treatment of brain tumors. The second is a project to try to make it easier to find the correct clinical trials. It is not just a matching service - it is a system where clinical trials will be explained and reviewed so we have more information to go on when selecting a clinical trial!
Do Corticosteroids Diminish Immune Checkpoint Blockade Efficacy? Although this article is about checkpoint inhibitors in lung cancer, the same might apply to brain tumors. It has already been shown that steroids may decrease the effectiveness of other brain tumor treatments. Unfortunately, there are times when steroids are needed so we can't just discontinue them. (Note: if on steroids - you can not just stop cold turkey - they have to be weaned off on a specific schedule or you can die!)
They should have done this a long time ago. I hope this becomes available for patients soon.The delivery method should be approved separately from the drugs used - so we can mix and match drugs based on a patients' genetic profile.
