Latest News

• Musella Foundation 2025 Highlights        

  As we come to the end of the year, we're proud to share our Musella Foundation 2025 Highlights. Everything we do — funding research, expanding patient navigation services, providing vital educational resources, patient advocacy — can only be done with your support. Please consider making a year-end donation to help us continue driving progress, supporting patients and families, and bringing hope to the brain tumor community. Every dollar helps! 

  
  
• Imvax Announces Positive Top-line Data from Phase 2b Clinical Trial of IGV-001 in Newly Diagnosed GBM        

  Imvax reported top-line results from its randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2b trial of IGV-001 in 99 patients with newly diagnosed (ndGBM). IGV-001 demonstrated a median overall survival (mOS) of 20.3 months, a 6.3 month improvement over placebo (14.0 months). Median follow-up was 22 months. The trial did not meet statistical significance for the endpoint of progression-free survival, but showed a very favorable profile with no drug-related serious adverse events. 

  The study used 2:1 randomization across 19 U.S. sites, one of which was initiated by our Chief Scientific Advisor, Dr. Steven Brem! About 48 hours post-tumor resection, patients received biodiffusion chambers containing either personalized whole tumor-derived cell with an antisense oligonucleotide (IMV-001) or inactive solution (placebo); chambers were removed 48 hours later. All patients then received standard-of-care chemoradiation and maintenance temozolomide.

  IGV-001 has Fast Track and Orphan Drug designations, and Imvax plans to meet with the FDA in the coming months to discuss the regulatory pathway. Given these significant results and the profound lack of promising options for GBM, we hope to see widescale patient access to this therapy in the near future. 

  
  
• Glioblastoma immunotherapy trial: a new breakthrough        

  A promising new combination approach from ImmunityBio, Inc. is gaining attention after one patient helped reveal its potential for recurrent glioblastoma (GBM). An initial study tested natural killer (NK)-cell immunotherapy combined with Anktiva, an engineered IL-15 agonist, plus bevacizumab; the trial allowed participants to use Optune but didn’t require it. However, when the first patient wearing Optune enrolled and did well on treatment, his unusually strong response suggested that the device may enhance how NK cells and Anktiva work together against GBM. These results prompted the launch of a further Phase 2b portion of the trial to see if the benefit can be replicated. This story highlights the important point that GBM immunotherapy trials should not exclude patients who want to use Optune.

  
  
• One of the world's oldest blood pressure drugs may also halt aggressive brain tumor growth        

  Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that a 70-year-old blood pressure drug, hydralazine, blocks an oxygen-sensing enzyme called ADO—a molecular “alarm” that controls blood vessel constriction. This discovery is relevant for brain cancer, because glioblastoma relies on the ADO pathway to survive in low-oxygen environments. When researchers tested hydralazine on glioblastoma cells in the lab, it pushed them into a non-dividing, dormant state known as senescence. While this finding is exciting, hydralazine has poor blood-brain barrier penetrance, so the next step will likely be development of new ADO inhibitors that are more tissue specific and better at crossing the blood-brain barrier.

  
  
• Bacteria Inside Brain Tumors Could Affect How They Behave        

  New research provides the strongest evidence yet that bacteria are present inside both gliomas and brain metastases, expanding a trend seen in several recent studies. Two major efforts—from MD Anderson and the Weizmann Institute—used advanced imaging and genetic analyses to detect bacterial genetic material and molecules inside brain tumor cells, nearby immune cells, and surrounding tissue. Some of these signals resembled microbes normally found in the mouth or gut, suggesting they may travel through the body to the brain, though most appear to be fragments rather than fully living colonies. These new findings aren't entirely surprising, given that viral microbes, e.g. cytomegalovirus (CMV), have been documented in brain tumors for years.
  
  These new studies show that brain metastases carry more diverse bacterial populations than glioblastomas, and location matters: posterior metastases show higher diversity than anterior ones. In glioblastoma, bacterial signals are less abundant but linked to metabolic pathways that may support tumor survival, while in metastases they’re associated with pathways tied to spread and invasion.

  These microbial signatures correlate with immune and metabolic activity in the tumor, suggesting they may influence tumor behavior, immune responses, or therapy resistance. Some bacterial species even made tumor cells more resistant to chemotherapy in lab tests. Patients with higher bacterial loads in brain metastases tended to have shorter survival.

  While the data so far does not prove causation between bacterial elements and tumor behavior, the presence of bacterial genetic material in brain tumors poses some interesting questions about systemic influence of the microbiome and could reshape how scientists view the tumor microenvironment.