ERC Announces Interim Results from Phase 2 Trial of Immunotherapy ERC1671 (Gliovac) in Recurrent Glioblastoma Patients This is the early results of a phase 2 randomized clinical trial for recurrent glioblastoma, which shows a remarkable improvement compared to historical controls (they do not discuss how the placebo group in the trial dd). 6 month survival rate was 100% in the trial compared to historical 33%. Median overall survival is 46 weeks compared to historical control of 23 weeks. Presumably some of the patients are still alive and the survivals should increase but they are already at double, and this is with a treatment that usually has minimal side effects.
Ketone-Supressing Drug Combats Rare Brain Cancer in Mice This is a scary report. They found that different tumors behave differently to alterations in levels of alpha-ketoglutarate. Brainstem gliomas (in mice) benefitted from a treatment that lowers the level of alpha-ketoglutarate. However, low grade gliomas (in mice) did better when they increased the level of alpha-ketoglutarate. It is great that they found an easy way to influence the speed of growth of tumors, but a lot more research needs to be done to fully understand how it impacts various tumors in people. IF true, we need to be careful testing the ketogenic diet which increases the levels of alpha-ketoglutarate. It might help some tumors but also might hurt other types. The methylation of the histones that alpha-ketoglutarate causes may be random, so the effect might not be consistent even in the same tumor types, or over time in the same patient. This definitely deserves more study.
