This new article was just added to our  Noteworthy Treatments sections.  It described the reasons why GammaTile was developed.

 This was a small study - 7 patients -  but the results look very good!  

 The program opens and closes as we have funding.   In the 2 weeks that we were open, we awarded $150,000 in grants to 30 patients to help them get access to treatments.

 This is an article I wrote for Cancer Commons a while ago. Just updated it!

This shows why we need the Promising Pathway Act.   See  virtualtrials.com/activism.cfm for details about the bill and how to help.  We need people all over the country to write letters but right now the biggest help would be for people in NH to contact both their senators as well as the person running for that senate seat.

 This should be an interesting presentation.   If we are able to figure out if a treatment is working or not much earlier than we do now, it will be a game changer and can save lives.

 We got overwhelmed with calls, emails and faxes.  In some cases we couldn't return all calls and emails the same day - that has never happened before.  Sorry.  We did get to all by the following day.  But if you sent an email or left a voicemail and did not hear back yet, contact us again.    If you sent a fax, wait until Tuesday then if you did not hear back, contact us.  The best way to send an application is by uploading it on the website - that goes directly into our system. When you send by fax, it goes through a fax to email gateway then has to get imported into the system - adds a little time and complexity. Do not send by mail - by the time it gets to us, and we scan it and upload it,  the program will probably be closed. 

 If you think you may need assistance paying for these covered treatments, apply. Do not feel awkward asking for help. One of our main objectives is to help reduce the stress in your life! The other one is to speed up the search for the cure!

 This compassionate use program is for Glioblastoma (and any other cancer)  patients who have mutations in the MAPK pathway  including  these mutations: KRAS, NRAS, HRAS, BRAF, MEK, and ERK,  Take a look at your pathoilogy report and see if any of those mutations are present. If they are, ask your doctor about this program.

Disclaimer:  I own stock in xCures and work as a paid consultant for them.

Radiation induced alopecia is hair loss due to damage from radiation therapy.   This article talks about how to treat it, starting with something really easy - rubbing a cream on the skin. This resulted in complete response in 16% of people but it helped 82% of the people who tried it.  If that doesn't work, there are harder things to try.  So if you have a bald spot from radiation and it bothers you, go to a dermatologist and show them this article!

 This is another option for patients with recurrent glioblastomas including those who already had re-irradiation.   The radiation seeds were popular years ago but had the side effect of a lot of radiation necrosis so it lost favor.  Now they tried it in combination with Avastin and found no radiation necrosis. This treatment is available to patients now.

 From our good friends at that End Brain Cancer Initiative!  Sounds like a great program.

 Gleolan is finally approved in Canada.   It has been standard of care in Europe for many years before it was approved in the USA 3 years ago.   According to the article cited , it doubles the chance of a complete resection, and doubles the 6 month progression free survival rate.  This is a dye used at the time of surgery to make it easier for the surgeon to identify where the tumor is.

This is a different technique than in our last advanced imaging webinar! Looks very interesting.  Let us know if you have any ideas for topics or speakers for future webinars!

 Only half of patients with a low grade glioma return to work in the first year.   5% of Glioblastoma patients are working at the 1 year point.  This underscores the devastation that a diagnosis of a brain tumor - even low grade - can bring to a family. The ability to work at 1 year (at a level they worked before the tumor) should be an important endpoint for clinical trials.

 This is a must read article for anyone using Optune.  It discusses the most common side effects and how to prevent or treat them!

 This may be a good option to ask your doctor about  for people who are going to have brain surgery for brain mets. Small study but impressive results with high local control rates.

 Disclaimer: GT Medical is a sponsor of the Musella Foundation!

 This is fascinating but needs to be confirmed in larger studies.   For patients with Glioblastoma, they found median OS was 22 months in blood group O whereas 14 months in blood group A, 11 months in blood group B and 6 months in blood group AB.    This could be significant when looking at clinical trial data. Blood type is usually not analyzed but it appears to make a larger difference in survival than any treatment ever tested.  

 Although only in dogs now, this is impressive results for a phase 1 dose finding trials.  I have long been interested in this approach.  About 15 years ago a phase 3 trial of CINTREDEKIN BESUDOTOX (IL13-PE38QQR) failed (although some patients did very well). The researchers analyzed the trial, figured out why it did not work and fixed it.  The 2 main problems were the delivery by convection enhanced delivery was not good enough at that time - but it is now, and the receptor they chose was not restricted to only brain tumor.  They changed from the wild type IL13 receptor to the mutant Il-13ra2 which is mostly found in tumors.  They then added a second receptor, EPHA2 which is also only found in tumor.    Unfortunately, it has been hard to get this into human trials because the first generation failed.   Now with proof of concept in dogs, hopefully it will move to human trials quickly!

 This article says that although radiation improves survival for glioblastomas, it also makes the tumor harder to treat. They found that by adding the drug trifluoperazine  (which is approved for psychiatric disorders) at the time of radiation, they were able to preserve the benefit of radiation but stop the conversion that causes the tumor cells to be harder to treat.  In mice, it resulted in longer survivals!    

There is a different clinical trial now of another dopamine receptor antagonist, Onc-201, being tested for H3K27M mutant gliomas. They are testing it during and after radiation, as well as only after. Comparing the 2 may show the effect described in the article- hopefully longer survivals!