The latest news:

• GT Medical Technologies Announces FDA Clearance of Expanded Indication for GammaTile Therapy         GammaTile is now available for newly diagnosed patients. They reported that it adds 10 months to the average time to progression, which is a major increase with little downside. These are wafers implanted at the time of surgery that deliver radiation to the tumor bed.  We have an interview with one of the doctors who created it at https://virtualtrials.com/video2019.cfm?video=201905
  



• University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center treats its first glioblastoma patient with genetically modified poliovirus         This is one of my favorite trials for recurrent Glioblastoma.   Do not let the name polio virus scare you - this is a geneticaly modified version of the virus which does not cause polio. It has been used in people for about 8 years at other centers, this is just the first time at this center.
  



• Combination of ALA-induced fluorescence-guided resection and intraoperative open photodynamic therapy for recurrent glioblastoma: case series on a promising dual strategy for local tumor control.         This is an interesting idea.  Gleolan (5-ALA) is a dye given to a patient (orally) before a surgery. During the surgery, the surgeon shines a special light on the brain and ny tumor lights up with the dye.  This report then adds in the next step - photodynamic therapy.  Once the maximal amount of tumor is removed, they then hit the tumor bed with a laser which hurts the tumor cells which picked up the dye to mop up the remaining bad cells.    This could be simply added to most surgeries and used in addition to whatever else was going to be done.  
  



• National Brain Tumor Society Provides Funding for the Development Novel Therapy with Potential to Treat Adult and Pediatric Brain Cancers         From our friends at the NBTS.  There was a fascinating presentation at SNO that showed GBM patients with low EGFR levels might do better than those with High EGFR levels with the experimental drug Onc-201.  I am happy to see they are going to test that in a trial. I wish them luck.  Hopefully they will find out if it is EGFR that makes the difference or it is just that the low EGFR status is linked to a high DRD2 level - which is the target of Onc201.  If the EGFR makes a difference, this opens the door to combination treatments targeting EGFR along with Onc-201 to hopefully help all patients.
  

BrainTumor Co-Payment Assistance Program Status:

• OPEN to new applicants