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This is the full text of the technical article on Cold Atmospheric Plasma. See previous article for layman's version!
Please help with these fundraisers! Foward this to all of your friends - especially the Twitter part.
This talks about the relationship between pseudoprogression and MGMT status. We already knew that MGMT methylation status is very important in determining the prognosis.. and we already knew (from our last news blast) that people with pseudoprogression do better than people without. This ties it together and may be why: those positive MGMT patients - who would be expected to live longer), also are more likely to get pseudoprogresion.. This may mean the temodar works better as a radiation sensitizer when MGMT is methylated.
Pseudoprogression means that the MRI scan looks like there is progression when in reality it is not progression. It was rare until we started using Temodar at the same time as radiation, now it occurs in about 12% of the people according to this article (I heard other numbers of about 50%). This article is the first time I saw mention that there is a major survival advantage when you see pseudoprogression - more than double the survival time compared to people who do not get pseudoprogression.
Isotretinoin (Accutane) is a drug approved for acne. Some doctors have been using it as maintanance therapy for GBMs to try to slow down regrowth of the tumors. This article reports on a small number of patients who tried it. There was an amazing increase in progression free survival, but no significant difference in the 2 and 3 year survival numbers.
By itself, an increase in progression free survival is meaningful to patients - this means a longer time of feeling relatively good. It also brings up the opportunity to combine it with other treatments and give those other treatments more time to work.
Irinotecan (CPT-11) looked like a very promising drug in the test tube and with other cancers, so it was tried IV in clinical trials with Avastin. It did slightly better but probably not worth the extra side effects. This project looks at a different way to get the drug into the brain at a higher concentration without hurting the rest of the body. I love concepts like this. IF they can get a high concentration in the brain, it may work much better.
Integrins are receptors on the cell membrane that help a cell communicate with it's enviorment. This article shows that there are various subtypes found on primary and metastatic tumor cells which may open up a new target to use for treatments. There is an Integrin blocking drug in trials for GBMs now (Cilengitide). Perhaps the trials should be extended to metastatic tumors.The early trials in GBM did not show significantly improved results but I wouldn't write this drug off yet - they need to find the best way to use it. I picture it as part of a cocktail approach.
I need everyone's help on this. You can help raise a lot of money for brain tumor research just by clicking a button on twitter.
From our friends at Monmouth (NJ) Medical Center - a free seminar on Rehab
Sorry for the short notice. Sounds like a nice event this thursday!
Interesting. Best part is the drug is available (off label).. may be worth starting a human trial of it.
This is a very exciting abstract. They may have found why the tumor becomes resistant to Avastin, and possibly a way to stop it.
Amazing - a 9 year old girl raised $7,000 for us by getting a haircut! You can help up the total by going to virtualtrials.com/shavetosave
This study shows that participating in a clinical trial - ANY trial - results in a better outcome than not participating in a trial. I have always said this but here is the proof. It may have to do with being watched closer when in a trial - even if you are in a control group. Your scans and pathology reports get second opinions and they spend a lot more time reading them knowing that you are in a trial.
This is one of my favorite experimental therapies. It is a gene therapy delivered by a virus that only infects tumor cells. They are now testing a new system of administration to try to cover the entire tumor.
This is a very small trial but shows that this new treatment may be worthwhile. It is a new type of minimally invasive laser surgery. It is already approved and in use in a few centers across the country. Go to http://www.monteris.com/ for details.
The Wall Street Journal picked up the press release about our twitter campaign! Please help out with this. Every time my message on twitter gets retweeted, Novocure will donate $5 to the Musella Foundation and $5 each to 2 other brain tumor organizations, up to $10,000 per organization. This literally takes 2 seconds if you already have a twitter account. Search for:
@AlMusella
and look for 1 of the tweets about the event. Hover over the message and a menu appears. Click RETWEET then Click OK.
You can do it every day and ask your friends to do it also!
Exciting results from another brain tumor vaccine!
This is the easiest fundraiser we ever had! Just retween one of our tweets with the hashtag #TuneIn2GBM and Novocure will donate $5 to the Musella Foundation and 2 other organizations (Up to $10,000 per organization)! Please ask all of your followers on twitter to do the same!
