Contractor Advisory Committee (CAC) Meeting Information - Tumor Treatment Field Therapy (L34823) Medicare is going to reconsider it's decision to not cover Optune. The meeting is going to be streamed online but you have to register (free) soon. You can not comment at this meeting but they will have a follow up meeting where you can tell Medicare how you feel on this topic. It is important to watch this to show the support of the brain tumor community.
Interesting experiment. Of course it is too early to tell if it will help people with a GBM, but something like this should be easy to pick up in our virtual trial. For those of you who are participating, and take aspirin on a regular basis, go back in and enter it!
Warning: Talk to your doctor before taking Aspirin. It can also increase the chances of bleeding. It might also help prevent blood clots - but this is a delicate balance.
This study shows a very large racial disparity - this time favoring African Americans. They identified a set of genes that differed between the two groups, which may be responsible. This difference is larger than most clinical trials would report as a successful treatment. It may be worth reporting clinical trial results by race and/or this group of genes now.
Historically, African Americans have been way underrepresented in clinical trials – as shown by this study. Out of almost 1,000 patients, only 6% were African American - while in the USA African Americans make up about 13% of the population. We are working to try to correct that – and other – disparities.
University of Minnesota First in U.S. to Offer New Targeted Therapy for Recurrent Brain Tumors This refers to the Gamma Tiles that I wrote about a few weeks ago. They are implantable wafers that slowly release radiation to the tumor bed and were recently approved by the FDA. We will have a webinar on this treatment in May during brain tumor awareness month! Watch for the announcement as it gets closer.
