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This is a new treatment for a type of lung cancer that has spread - including to the brain. 60% of patients with brain mets saw shrinkage of the tumor. 18% had a complete response. On average, these responses lasted 9 months. This is proof that the drug crossed the blood brain barrier. It might be worth considering using for any tumor that shows an overexpression of ALK.
This may open the door for a new treatment for papillary craniopharyngioma.
This project focuses on DIPG and has already found new biomarkers that might be able to be used as targets for new treatments.
Unfortunately another negative trial. Adding Enzastaurin to Avastin did not help.
This is an interesting trial. We (the Musella Foundation) helped fund earlier versions of it!
Great news - you can use the Optune system even if you have a non-programmable shunt installed!
They aren't sure yet about programable shunts or pacemakers - they had a few patients who used Optune with these without problems but not enough for the FDA to remove the warning on the package insert.
As far as I know, this drug is not yet approved for humans. It is approved for dogs and is pretty inexpensive, so it is easily available. I would love to see a human trial of it.
This is super selective intra arterial infusion. There is an older video with more details at virtualtrials.com/video2012.cfm
This is an exciting project, looking at a new target to treat Glioblastomas.
This is the 81st brain tumor research grant awarded by the Musella Foundation! Thanks to the many donors who made it possible for us to fund these amazing projects!
Exciting reports from the SNO meeting! Highlight is almost a doubling of survival time for patients using Toca511 compared to historical controls. These were small uncontrolled trials but they show enough promise that they justify a large phase 2/3 trial which is starting right now!
(disclaimer: Tocagen is a sponsor of our organization)
We need to have a discussion about the value of increasing progression free survival (PFS) without increasing overall survival. (The braintumor treatments group is the best place to discuss it). My thoughts are that obviously, increasing PFS is good - you feel good for a longer period of time, but perhaps it may be better to try other things instead. Shoot for increasing both PFS and overall survival. There are a few interesting trials going on for recurrent GBM, and the Optune device has been shown to increase both PFS and OS.
I tried to get something very similar off the ground years ago, but couldn't raise the money needed for it. I had the major brain tumor centers and another brain tumor foundation willing but it was too expensive for us. I hope this group does well. I think it is the fastest and cheapest way to find the best drugs and combinations.
Impressive long term survival state presented at the SNO conference of Rindopepimut plus Avastin vs. Avastin alone for recurrent Glioblastoma patients. Highlight: at 2 years the Rindopeimut + Avastin group had 25% of patients alive. The Avastin alone group had 0% alive.
This is just a simple shot in the arm which adds no significant side effects - just local reaction at the injection site like a flu shot.
This small study was in patients with glioblastoma multiforme who failed Temodar and Avastin. In general, patients who failed these 2 treatments live an average of an additional 2 months without further treatment, or 5.2 months with salvage therapies. With high dose Val-083, median survival was 9.2 more with 1/3 of the patients being alive at the 12 month point. Pretty good results in a very bad patient population.
Amazing results. 25% of patients with recurrent gbm alive after 2 years compared with NONE in the control group! The FDA should try to get this approved as soon as possible. We shouldn't have to wait years for another study.
This is a new report on combining Optune with Avastin. Both are approved for recurrent GBM. The combination reduced the chance of dying by 39% compared to Avastin alone. This should be the standard for recurrent gbm and investigated for newly diagnosed.
Good news from the SNO meeting: Although they did not hit the original target of overall survival for all patients in the trial, they found a subgroup of patients where the vaccine worked very well. Newly diagnosed GBM patients with a blood type of HLA-A2+ did very well. If the MGMT methylation status was positive, there was a 58% increase in survival compared to the control group. If the MGMT status was negative, there was a 34% increase in survival. This is for a treatment that is just a simple shot in the arm and once approved, could just be added to other treatments. They just started a new phase 3 trial that will require patients to be HLA-A2+. This should show a big improval.
Congratulations to the four heroes!
Interesting new clinical trial design
