Latest News

• Are you Considering Optune Therapy for GBM?         This is a market research study to look at the decision making involved when considering Optune. They are looking for patients who were prescried Optune but did not yet decide if they want to try it.  There is a payment for your time, and the Musella Foundation will get a small donation.  Let me know if you participate in the phone interview!  
  



• Sydney researchers identify/advance potential revolutionary new drug treatment for fatal childhood cancer         The Musella Foundation helped fund this project through the DIPG Collaborative.  Sounds exciting but it is early and more research needs to be done. Will be keeping an eye on this!
  



• New zebrafish model could help advance glioblastoma multiforme research         Exciting research done in a zebrafish.  This model can mimick the way Glioblastoma cells spread in the brain of humans, and they are working on ways to stop the spread of the tumor. 
  



• New combination treatment approach improves overall survival in mice with glioblastoma         This is only in mice, but it is very interesting.   Until recently, very little work has been done with dopamine receptor antagonists and brain tumors.  They used the drug Quetiapine, which is approved to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, along with Lipitor, which is used to treat high cholesterol.  The great thing about this research is if they find it does work in people, it is easy to get access to these drugs and it can make a difference immediately.  Of course, human testing is needed first. On a related idea - the drug Onc-201 is a powerful dopamine receptor antagonist and is known to penetrate the blood brain barrier. There is a trial of using it at the same time as radiation in kids with DIPG. Wonder if adding Lipitor might be worth it.   
  



• The effects of releasing early results from ongoing clinical trials         This article discusses the effects of releasing ongoing data from clinical trials on the trials themselves.   Obviously it helps the trial if the data is good and hurts the trial if the data is bad. What the article doesn't discuss is the effect on the patients.   If patients knew which trials were better than others, they would only go to the better trials. Maybe the worse trials should shut down and reformulate in a better way.   Our patient navigation program is one way to find the better trials. We have over 700 patients in our registry and we see what treatments they are doing (including trials) and the outcomes.  We help guide the patients to the better treatments.
  



• Brain tumor study reveals surprising gene deletion and method to overcome drug resistance         I love the thought process involved. They looked at how the tumor becomes resistant to treatment, and then found a pathway the tumor uses to get around attempts to stop the resistence.  Hopefully this will be tried in humans soon.