Dr Orringer invented a new way for the surgeon to tell the difference between normal brain tissue and tumor tissue as well as what grade of tumor it, quickly while still in the surgery.  He also specializes in brain mapping and tumors of the speech and movement areas of the brain.  He is involved in several brain tumor clinical trials.  Should be a very interesting webinar!

 This study shows that using Opdivo by itself doesn't work well in recurrent glioblastoma. My thoughts are that something else is needed to trigger the immune response, then Opdivo can enhance that response.   It might be something as simple as Optune - by killing cells, neoantigens are released and the immune system gets primed. Opdivo could theoretically enhance that immune response. Or a vaccine. Or more radiation.  These things need to be tested further!

 These events have been informative and fun. You can view past events on our website at virtualtrials.com/video.cfm

Join us live to be able to ask questions

 Of course it is too early to tell if it will work but I love the idea of trying new ways to attack this problem!

 Interesting concept - should work for any tumor that has p53 mutations! Hopefully human trials will start soon!

 These webinars are very informative and give you the chance to learn new things, and to ask questions of experts in the field! Well worth going to the live events!

Our last event was about a new form of radiation in clinical trials that looks very promising.  Anyone with a recurrent glioblastoma should at least ask their doctor about it.

Our next event is advances in neurosurgery!

 This has been a great series so far - all of the lectures are in our video library (Go to virtualtrials.com and click INTERACT then VIDEO LIBRARY from any menu).  It continues this Sunday night with a talk about a new form of radiation.

 We just posted the video from our last webinar. Advances in neuro-imaging.  This is one of the most important topics we ever covered. It is a new way to look at MRIs that enables you to tell if a treatment is working or not much sooner, and if the thing on your scan is tumor or pseudoprogression.

This is available NOW! Many major medical centers can do it but if your MRI center can not, there are companies that can do it as a service using the MRI files from your scans!

 This will be the topic of our next Brain Tumor Awareness Month Webinar, this Sunday May 17, 2020 at 7pm eastern.   Go to virtualtrials.com/webinar to participate! No advance registration required.

The topic is Rhenium-Labeled NanoLiposomes - a new way to deliver radiation therapy to the tumor! Should be very interesting!

 Optune is finally available in China - 6 years after we had it here in the USA!

In China there are about 45,000 patients diagnosed per year with glioblastoma.  That is more than double the number here in the USA.

The press release states: A large, global phase 3 pivotal clinical study in newly diagnosed glioblastoma showed adding Optune to chemotherapy more than doubled the five-year overall survival rate1

 This one may apply to most people interested in brain tumors.  MRIs are not as accurate as you think they are. Many times the doctors are not sure if what they see on the scan is new tumor growth or pseudoprogression - which are changes relating to radiation injuries and treatment effects.  This doctor has a way to help tell the difference.  It can also tell earlier if a treatment  is working or not, so you have more time to change to a different treatment. Very important stuff.

 This is a small randomized trial. and included grade 3 as well as grade 4 brain tumors but the results are very impressive, by adding an immune stimulant, (which is approved for skin cancer) which is applied topically.  Reports median survival of 54 months compared to 11 months for placebo.  

 This company is working on a derivative of CBD oil that looks really promising in early testing.

 We will try to simulcast it on Facebook, but it is better from our webinar ZOOM room - as it is easier to ask questions.

 This is great news.   It looked like Tocagen's phase 3 clinical trial failed so they stopped development of the drug. However, there were some stunning successes in earlier trials and even in the failed trial there were some cases that were deemed a success.  However, the control group did a little better overall than the treatment group.

A new company purchased the drug and presumably will do further testing but this time targeted to those most likely to benefit from it!  

 There are 2 important points from this study:

1. They tested a rat model to see if olaparib can cross the blood brain barrier. This is a standard test that is used for most drugs.  They found that this drug does not cross the blood brain barrier in rats.  Then they tested in people by giving the drug before a surgery and testing the tumor sample removed and found that 100% of the time it does cross the blood brain barrier and gets into the human brain.   This shows that we really can't trust the mouse models for BBB penetration and we need these human tests.

2. Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor (which is approved for other types of cancer so it is readily available off label) and they found that in the test tube it acts as a radiation sensitizer at the concentrations they found in the human testing of tumor samples. They report 36% of patients with recurrent glioblastoma were progression free at 6 months, which shows it has some effect and needs to be studied further to see how best to use it!

 This is a new type of greeting card that can be hung on a wall - like in a hospital - then easily removed and reused.

There is a discount code in the press release and they will donate to the Musella Foundation when you use that code!

 Dr Brem is one of my all time favorite brain tumor doctors and is up to date and involved in the latest high tech treatments for brain tumors. Should be a great webinar!

 This interesting study looked at what would happen if you remove small parts of the skull using burr holes to allow the tumor treating fields better access to the tumor.   There was no control group to compare but they reported pretty good results with overall survival of 15 months (after start of trial - which is for recurrent glioblastoma).  I love these studies that look at ways to make current treatments better. Now they have to build upon these results and try other combinations.

 This study shows a small improvement with Optune by itself compared to standard treatments.  Enough to show Optune does have a positive effect but not enough to use Optune by itself for recurrent Glioblastoma (or to use the standard treatments either).  Further study is needed combining Optune with other treatments to make meaningful gains in survival.