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This is for low grade tumors - shows that what worked for high grade tumors - combining Temodar with Radiation, also helps low grade brain tumors
From our friends at Monmouth Medical Center
This conference is for anyone interested in brain tumors. It is free, but we require registration since space is limited and we will be providing food! I will be there - if you go - stop by and say hi!
This is an amazing program. It makes an immediate impact on patient's lives. Many times we heard from patients who were going to foergo Temodar during radiation because of the expense. As you know, using Temodar at the time of radiation quadruples the chances of a GBM patient surviving at least 4 years. However, it is very expensive even if you only have to pay 20% some people think twice - especially if they were also just told they will never work again. This removes some pressure at the time most families are under the biggest strain of thier lives.
The program opens and closes as we have funding available. I know people prefer to donate toward research, but consider that this is also an important cause. I set up our donation system so people can designate where we use the donation - for copayments, for research or anywhere needed. Please consider making a donation - or consider adding us to your will - or hosting a fundraiser for us!
There are a few new ways to get treatments approved by the FDA - hopefully the results of the trial will be good enough to convince the FDA to let us get access to this vaccine much sooner than the standard process! I will be at the meeting when they reveal the results - will let you know how it went!
I mentioned this a few weeks ago but this article adds a short video about the vaccine.
This is a friend of mine. Interesting project...
This study looked at a large group of patients and concludes that the approval of Avastin for GBMs has imporved survival!
Boron neutron capture therapy is an old treatment consisting of giving the patient a boron containing drug which concentrates in the tumor, and then shooting neutron beams at it. The neutron beams do not hurt the cells that do not have boron - but in the cells that did take up boron, the neutrons split the boron releasing radioactive particles that kill the cell.
This has been tried before but the problem was fiding a way to get the boron into all of the tumor cells. Years ago we did not have that technology, but now we are much closer! Worth trying again.
This is one of my pet peeves about the USA FDA. This treatment can help surgeons remove more of the tumor safely, and it is approved in
I love the FDA - they understood the need to approve Avastin and the Novocure system even when they only showed a small benefit. Now that they are approved and being used in combinations - they are showing better progress. It is just in cases like this where FDA policy goes against common sense.
From our friends at ABC2 and the Tug McGraw foundation - an interesting fundraiser.
This is excellent news. The combination of Celldex and Avastin seems perfect. Celldex is a vaccine against EGFRvIII - which is a marker found on the worst subtype of GBMs. I have heard rumors (the trial is still ongoing) that even when Celldex patients have a recurrence, usually the recurrence is EGFRvIII negative which gives a much better prognosis and more of a chance for other treatments to work.
Avastin is an antibody against VEGF which is another growth factor. It is possible that a tumor needs one of these 2 growth factors to grow. Blocking them both makes sense
Great news! Temodar is now available as a generic.. should save $$!
We had problems with our email over the last 4 weeks - if you sent email and did not get a response - try again or call us.
We mentioned this trial recently but this article has a nice video that explains it! Worth watching the video! It is about the Tocagen trial for Glioblastoma multiforme
It is a good sign that they are allowing the trial to continue. Makes sense to only allow patients who have adequate bone marrow function.. they should have done that from the start.
Excellent cause.. Camp for families affected by brain tumors. The Musella Foundation also gave a $5,000 donation to Camp Jinka this summer!
This is a blog written by a person who is very anti-alternative treatments.. but it points out that Antineoplaston treatments have been stopped by the FDA. People already on them can continue, but the FDA will not allow any new patients to start it.
The antineoplaston story is very long and strange. Doctor Burzynski thinks he may have come up with the cure for cancer, and has been trying to prove it. He has run over 100 trials in the last 30 years and has not been able to prove that they work. The FDA tried to stop him many times but the patient community fought it - mainly because there were no other treatments available for the diseases he was targetting and since no results (negative or positive) were published in respected journals, there was the hope that it works. Now it appears that it is over.
