brain tumor Archives - Amazing Health Advances

A Potential New Treatment for Brain Tumors

AHA Publisher — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 07:00:11 +0000

University of Cincinnati via Newswise – A research question posed in Pankaj Desai’s lab has led to a decade of research, a clinical trial and major national funding to further investigate a potential new treatment for the most deadly form of brain tumors. Desai, PhD, and his team at the University of Cincinnati recently received a $1.19 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to continue research into the use of a drug called letrozole to treat glioblastomas (GBM). Research Progression GBMs are aggressive brain tumors that patients often are unaware of until symptoms emerge and the tumor is substantial. Current treatments include immediate surgery to safely remove as much tumor as possible, radiation and chemotherapy, but the tumor often recurs or becomes resistant to treatments. The average patient survives no more than 15 months after diagnosis. The medication letrozole was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for postmenopausal women with breast cancer in 2001. The drug works by targeting an enzyme called aromatase that is present in breast cancer cells and helps the cancer grow. In the fall of 2012, Desai and a doctoral student in his lab, Nimita Dave (now a senior pharmacologist at a biotech company in Boston), asked a question: Does aromatase play a similar role in GBM tumors, and if so, will letrozole work as an effective treatment? Early research in the lab found the enzyme was present in brain tumor cell lines, and further testing found a very high amount of aromatase at protein and mRNA levels in brain tumor samples from UC’s tumor bank. However, that did not guarantee that letrozole would be similarly effective in brain tumors like it is in breast cancer tumors. Desai explained a defense system called the blood-brain barrier only allows certain compounds into the brain based on their physical and chemical properties. “Otherwise any compound could come into the brain and cause havoc and neurotoxicity,” said Desai, professor and chair of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division in UC’s James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy and a University of Cincinnati Cancer Center member. “There are other compounds similar to letrozole, but we went with letrozole because we figured that based on its properties, this compound actually has the best chance of getting through into the brain from the blood circulation.” Studies in animal models showed that letrozole was effective, and Desai’s research group moved to test the compound in cells derived from human brain tumor tissues. In this phase of work, key contributions were made by current doctoral student Aniruddha Karve who will continue to work with Desai as a postdoctoral fellow on the new NIH grant. “What we saw in the patient-derived cells is that letrozole is very effective in killing the tumor cells in cell culture models,” Desai said. With funding support from the Cancer Center and the UC Brain Tumor Center, Desai’s team launched a phase 0/1 clinical trial testing what dosage of letrozole is appropriate to treat glioblastomas. This trial was led by Trisha Wise-Draper, MD, PhD, an expert in phase 1 oncology trials with contributions from several other neuro-oncologists and neurosurgeons. The trial is set to be completed soon, but Desai said early results have shown the drug is “unequivocally” reaching its target of the brain tumor tissue safely. Preliminary results also show that doses of letrozole higher than those needed for breast cancer treatment can be safely achieved in GBM patients. New Research While the body of research results has been encouraging so far, Desai said GBMs remain a complicated, aggressive form of brain cancer. As promising as letrozole is, it is still unlikely that the drug will be a singular cure for the disease. “We hope that would work, but it’s not necessarily rooted in reality. It’s going to be a combination of drugs,” Desai said. Supported by the new NIH/NINDS funding, Desai and his team will research the preclinical effectiveness of combining letrozole with other chemotherapy compounds. The three-year grant began Aug. 1. “It’s really exciting to get this sort of reassurance from a peer reviewed grant application,” Desai said. “And it’s an exciting time. I think finding a cure for a disease like GBM is like finding a needle in a haystack, and we hope that it’s going to really work, and that’s what we are all striving for.” Desai said the research has been and continues to be a collaborative effort between UC colleagues from the College of Pharmacy, Cancer Center and Brain Tumor Center. “It’s really a beautiful collaboration, and I’m most grateful for that,” Desai said. “This is a disease where an urgent breakthrough is absolutely needed, and our team along with others in the field are really striving to make a difference.” David Plas, PhD, professor and Anna and Harold W. Huffman endowed chair in glioblastoma experimental therapeutics in the Department of Cancer Biology in UC’s College of Medicine and a Cancer Center member, and his research group are joining the team as the new project launches. Plas said his lab has focused on tumors deficient in a tumor-suppressing protein called PTEN, and the new research may reveal how letrozole in combination with other therapies may lead to a suitable treatment for PTEN-deficient glioblastomas. “This new collaboration will combine my group’s experience in glioblastoma experimental therapeutics with Dr. Desai’s experience in GBM therapeutics and pharmacokinetics,” Plas said. “By investigating possible combinations with letrozole for GBM therapy, this new project has the potential for faster translation to clinical trial. It is exciting to work with Desai on this new project.” To read the original article click here.

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Do Cell Phones Affect Cognitive Function?

AHA Publisher — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 08:00:34 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – The World Health Organization concluded that cell phone radiation may cause brain tumors, but what about effects on cognitive function? “At present, we do not know precisely the degree to which the risk of cancer and other adverse health effects are increased by the exposure to the RF [radiofrequency] fields from cell phones, smart meters, and other wireless devices.” You may recall that I explored the brain tumor data in my video Does Cell Phone Radiation Cause Cancer?, but what other potential adverse health effects might there be? For example, how might radiofrequency fields affect brain function? That’s the topic of my video Do Mobile Phones Affect Brain Function?. “The dramatic increase in use of cellular telephones has generated concern about possible negative effects of radiofrequency signals delivered to the brain. However, whether acute cell phone exposure affects the human brain is unclear.” So, researchers decided to put it to the testusing PET scan technology. What did they find? As you can see at 0:44 in my video, elevated brain activity was found in the region of the brain closest to the antenna after 50 minutes of exposure to a cell phone call. What does that actually mean, though? Well, it’s evidence that the human brain has at least some sensitivity to the effects of cell phone radiation. The increased metabolism in brain regions closest to the antenna “suggest that brain absorption of [cell phone emissions] may enhance the excitability of brain tissue.” The potential health consequences of this are unknown, though the results suggest that “cell phone use can possibly affect brain function,” potentially affecting neurotransmitter and neurochemical brain activities. Perhaps this can explain the changes in psychological test outcomes observed after exposure to cell phone radiation. Although earlier studies failed to find an effect of short-term cell exposure on human cognitive performance, a 2017 review noted that “several studies indicate an increase in cortical excitability and/or efficiency with EMF exposure,” which may translate out into measurable cognitive effects. What’s more, this “cortical excitability”—excitability of the outer layer of the brain tied to cell phone exposure—“might also underpin disruptions in sleep” while at the same time being “associated with faster reaction time.” If you expose people to active cell phones while they play a computer game, the subjects can actually respond faster compared to sham exposure, meaning placebo exposure of the same scenario but with the cell phone turned off. This empowered the industry to claim that while it may be the case that cell phone radiation does affect brain function after all, the effects are positive! A decrease in reaction time upon exposure to microwave radiation from cell phones “helps people better respond to different threatening situations. Therefore these exposures can decrease the probability of human errors and reduce destructive accidents.” But, as you can see at 2:40 in my video, the difference in reaction time was only a few thousandths of a second. When all the studies are put together, “the effects seem to be so small that implications for human performance in everyday life can be practically ruled out.” As you can see at 2:57 in my video, there was a study that found that heavy cell phone users did better on a test of the ability to filter out irrelevant information, but this improvement in focused attention may just be because heavy cell phone users have a lot of practice carrying on conversations in crowded places, “rather than a direct effect of mobile phone use on cognition.” Overall, electromagnetic fields from cell phones “do not seem to induce cognitive or psychomotor [fine motor skill] effects.” Nonetheless, one has to worry about “the existence of sponsorship and publication biases.” Studies may have conflicts of interest, such as being funded by cellphone companies, and perhaps were designed in a way to skew the results or were quietly shelved and never published if they showed anything negative. In fact, researchers compared the source of funding and results of studies of the health effects of mobile cell phone use and “found that the studies funded exclusively by industry were indeed substantially less likely to report significant effects…that may be relevant to health.” It would look suspicious if all the industry studies showed no adverse effects, though, so some have accusedthe industry of taking obfuscation to a new level. “Although the industry-funded studies were significantly more likely to be negative”—that is, show no effects—“as expected, no two positive studies reported the same effect, and the few attempts to do so failed. Thus the apparent message of the studies dovetailed well with the [industry’s] position that there are no reproducible biological effects.” So, industry wasn’t only denying the existence of effects; it was also denying the existence of reproducible effects. It’s like this: If all of the industry-funded studies universally found no adverse effects of cell phone use, in contrast to the findings of independent research, the industry-funded research program could have been more easily dismissed. As well, industry researchers couldn’t publish adverse health effects because that would be bad for business. So, they came up with a wide hodge-podge of conflicting results. In this way, it seems they can better protect themselves. Was this all part of “a well-designed legal strategy” to fight off lawsuits? We may never know. We do know that when the World Health Organization announced that cell phones may cause brain tumors, the cellphone industry went into damage control to attack the agency, similar to when the WHO came out against second-hand tobacco smoke. “Sowing confusion and manufacturing doubt is a well-known strategy used by the tobacco and other industries.” Key Takeaways The World Health Organization (WHO) has found that radiation from cell phones may cause brain tumors. Researchers investigated the impact of radiofrequency signals from cellular devices on the brain and found, via PET scan technology, evidence of at least some sensitivity to the effects of cell phone radiation. Potential health consequences have not yet been determined, but results suggest cellphone usage may affect brain function and seems to increase “cortical excitability,” which may be linked to both sleep disruption and “faster reaction time,” though the difference may be only a few thousandths of a second. Research funded by the mobile phone industry was found to be substantially less likely to report significant health effects and “no two positive studies reported the same effect, and the few attempts to do so failed.” In this way, industry-funded studies had a broad range of conflicting results, which may have been calculated. To read the original article click here.

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Research Breakthrough Could Mean Better Treatment for Patients with Most Deadly Form of Brain Tumor

AHA Publisher — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 07:00:36 +0000

Queen Mary University of London via Newswise – Scientists studying the most common and aggressive type of brain tumour in adults have discovered a new way of analysing diseased and healthy cells from the same patient. Crucially, the work which has been funded by the charity Brain Tumour Research could pave the way for truly personalised treatment for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Only 25% of patients with this type of brain tumour survive for more than one year and just 5% live for more than five years. A team at the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at Queen Mary University of London has established an entirely new experimental research pipeline which, in a trial involving ten patients, has revealed new insights into how GBM develops, identifying potential new targets for individualised treatments. It could also help predict a patient’s response to drugs currently in clinical use for other diseases which would be extremely valuable as the average survival time for this type of brain tumour is just 12 to 18 months. Their paper, Comparative epigenetic analysis of tumour initiating cells and syngeneic EPSC-derived neural stem cells (SYNGN) in glioblastoma, is published in the high impact journal Nature Communications today (Thursday 21 October). Professor Silvia Marino, who leads the team, said: “We have used this powerful technique to identify changes in the function of genes that occur in GBM that do not entail a change in the genetic code (epigenetics). This has revealed new insights for how GBM develops and identified potential new targets for individualised treatments.” By using a combination of laboratory work and sophisticated analytical computer programmes, the team at Queen Mary has identified significant molecular differences which could be exploited to develop new treatments. It is an innovative approach enabling the comparison of normal and malignant cells from the same patient helping to identify genes that play a role in growth of the tumour. The research is particularly significant as GBM is the most common malignant brain tumour in adults. Its aggressive nature means it spreads extensively into surrounding brain tissue making complete removal by surgery almost impossible. It is extremely resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy meaning it is very likely to recur following treatment. Hugh Adams, spokesman for Brain Tumour Research, said: “The complex nature of this particular tumour type means that the standard of care for these patients has not changed in a generation so this research brings much-needed hope for the future. One of the main challenges in developing effective treatments for GBM is that the tumour exhibits significant variation between patients and there can even be significant variation within a single patient’s tumour. These variations can arise from change to the cell’s genetic code – known as mutations – combined with changes to how specific genes are controlled. “There is strong evidence that GBM cells develop from neural stem cells but previous studies have not been able to compare tumour cells and their putative cell of origin from the same person. Prof Marino and her team have now harnessed state-of-the-art stem cell technologies and next-generation DNA sequencing methods to compare diseased and healthy cells from the same patient. Their results have shown how this approach can reveal novel molecular events that appear to go awry when GBM develops, thereby identifying targets for potentially new treatments.” The results of the team’s work have shown how this approach can reveal novel molecular targets for potentially new treatments. For example, the results reveal how some GBM tumours can control the movement of regulatory T cells, a type of immune cell and has also revealed epigenetic changes that could be used to predict the response to drugs currently in clinical use. Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet historically just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease. Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres in the UK. It also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure. The charity is calling for a national annual spend of £35 million in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia and is also campaigning for greater repurposing of drugs. www.braintumourresearch.org To read the original article click here.

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Sleeper Cells: Newly Discovered Stem Cell Resting Phase Could Put Brain Tumors to Sleep

AHA Publisher — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 07:00:18 +0000

Arizona State University via EurekAlert – Christopher Plaisier, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, and Samantha O’Connor, a biomedical engineering doctoral student in the Plaisier Lab, are leading research into a new stage of the stem cell life cycle that could be the key to unlocking new methods of brain cancer treatment. Their work was recently published in the research journal Molecular Systems Biology. “The cell cycle is such a well-studied thing and yet here we are looking at it again for the umpteenth time and a new phase pops out at us,” Plaisier says. “Biology always has new insights to show us, you just have to look.” The spark for this discovery came through a collaboration with Patrick Paddison, an associate professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and Dr. Anoop Patel, an assistant professor of neurological surgery at the University of Washington who is also involved in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Paddison’s team called upon Plaisier to help analyze their brain stem cell data characterized through a process called single-cell RNA sequencing. “That data turned out to be pretty amazing,” Plaisier says. “It mapped out into this beautiful circular pattern that we identified as all of the different phases of the cell cycle.” O’Connor developed a new cell cycle classifier tool — called ccAF, or cell cycle ASU/Fred Hutchinson to represent the collaboration between the two institutions — that takes a closer, “high-resolution” look at what’s happening within the growth cycles of stem cells and identifies genes that can be used to track progress through the cell cycle. “Our classifier gets deeper into the cell cycle because there could be pieces we’re capturing that have important implications for disease,” O’Connor says. When Plaisier and O’Connor used the ccAF tool to analyze cell data for glioma tumors, they found the tumor cells were often either in the Neural G0 or G1 growth state. And as tumors become more aggressive, fewer and fewer cells remain in the resting Neural G0 state. This means more and more cells are proliferating and growing the tumor. They correlated this data with the prognosis for patients with glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive type of brain tumor. Those with higher Neural G0 levels in tumor cells had less aggressive tumors. They also found that the quiescent Neural G0 state is independent of a tumor’s proliferation rate, or how fast its cells divide and create new cells. “That was an interesting finding from our results, that quiescence itself could be a different biological process,” Plaisier says. “It’s also a potential point where we could look for new drug treatments. If we could push more cells into that quiescent state, the tumors would become less aggressive.” Current cancer drug treatments focus on killing cancer cells. However, when the cancer cells are killed, they release cell debris into the surrounding area of the tumor, which can cause the remaining cells to become more resistant to the drugs. “So, instead of killing the cells, if we put them to sleep it could potentially be a much better situation,” Plaisier says. With their ccAF tool, they were also able to find new states at the beginning and end of the cell cycle that exist between the commonly known states. These are among the topics for their next phase of research. “We’re starting to think about ways to dig into those and learn more about the biology of the entry and exit from the cell cycle because those are potentially really important points where the cells will either go into the G1 state or G0,” Plaisier says. Figuring out what triggers a cell to enter the division cycle or remain in a G0 resting state could help understand the processes behind tumor growth. “The primary feature of any cancer is that the cells are proliferating,” Plaisier says. “If we could get in there and figure out what the mechanisms are, that might be a place to slow them down.” Plaisier and O’Connor are making the ccAF classifier tool open source and available in a variety of formats for anyone studying single-cell RNA sequencing data to ease into the process of studying cell cycles. To read the original article click here.

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Targeted Delivery of Highly Toxic Anti-Cancer Drug to Brain Tumors

AHA Publisher — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 08:00:39 +0000

University of Houston via EurekAlert – With a survival rate of only five years, the most common and aggressive form of primary brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme, is notoriously hard to treat using current regimens that rely on surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and their combinations. “Two of the major challenges in the treatment of gliomas include poor transport of chemotherapeutics across the blood brain barrier and undesired side effects of these therapeutics on healthy tissues,” said Sheereen Majd, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Houston. “To get enough medicine across the blood brain barrier, a high dosage of medication is required, but that introduces more toxicity into the body and can cause more problems.” In an article published and featured on the cover of a January issue of Advanced Healthcare Materials, Majd reports a new glioma-targeted nano-therapeutic that will only address tumor cells offering increased effectiveness and reduced side effects. An iron chelator known as Dp44mT (Di-2-pyridylketone-4,4-dimethyl-3-thiosemicarbazone) is an effective medication known to inhibit the progression of tumors but had not been used against brain tumors prior to this study. The chelator works to pull out the overabundance of iron needed by cancer cells, thus starving them. Using clues from the tumors themselves, Majd developed a Dp44mT-loaded nano-carrier that would be drawn to glioma tumors, which present many IL13 (Interluken) receptors. Because the IL13 receptors are abundant, she added IL13 ligands onto her FDA-approved biodegradable polymer carrier (with the Dp44mT inside) so the receptors would lure the ligands, thus receiving the medicine. Prior to her new carrier, the Dp44mT drug would be administered, but could go anywhere in the body, even places it is not meant to go. “It’s like an envelope with no address on it. It can land anywhere, and with toxins inside it could kill anything. Now, with our targeted delivery, we put an address on the package and it goes directly to the cancer cells,” said Majd. Aggressive brain tumors also develop high levels of multidrug resistance making them nearly impervious to common chemotherapeutics such as temozolomide or doxorubicin. “There is, hence, an urgent need for more effective therapeutic formulations with the ability to overcome drug resistance in aggressive glioma tumors and to kill these malignant cells without damaging the healthy tissues,” reports Majd. Majd’s study, which tested the nano-therapeutic both in vivo and in vitro, is the first report on targeted delivery of Dp44mT to malignant tumors. To read the original article click here.

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Schizophrenia Drug Combined with Radiation Shows Promise in Treating Deadly Brain Tumors

AHA Publisher — Mon, 04 May 2020 07:00:35 +0000

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences via Newswise – Researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues have found that adding a drug once commonly used to treat schizophrenia to traditional radiation therapy helped improve overall survival in mice with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest and most difficult-to-treat brain tumors. Newswise — The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that a combination of radiation and the drug trifluoperazine not only targets glioblastoma cells but also helps overcome the resistance to treatment so common to this aggressive form of cancer. The results could prove promising for patients with the disease, for whom the median survival time is only 12 to 18 months following diagnosis. Radiation is an integral part of therapy for people with cancer and one of the most effective treatments. In many cases, it can help cure the disease. But in glioblastoma, tumor cells often become resistant to radiation treatment because the radiation itself can induce “phenotype conversion,” a process that turns certain non-tumor stem cells into tumor-producing cells, causing the cancer to reoccur. “While radiotherapy is one of the few treatments that prolong survival in glioblastoma patients, radiation alone does very little in treating the disease in our models because we are dealing with highly aggressive tumors,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Frank Pajonk, a professor of radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the Jonsson Cancer Center. “The drug trifluoperazine by itself does not do much either, but we found when you combine them, they become highly efficient. Importantly, the drug does not sensitize cells to radiation but rather prevents the occurrence of resistant glioma stem cells.” UCLA researchers have been exploring new ways to prevent glioblastoma tumor cells from becoming resistant to radiation by adding drugs to the treatment regimen that have traditionally been used for other purposes. To find out if there were any existing drugs that could interfere with the radiation-induced phenotype conversion, the team screened more than 83,000 compounds through the shared resources at UCLA, which provides researchers access to specialized equipment and services to help them pursue cutting-edge research. They were able to identify nearly 300 compounds, including the dopamine receptor antagonist trifluoperazine, that had the potential to block phenotype conversion and improve the efficacy of radiation therapy. Once trifluoperazine was identified, it was tested on mice with patient-derived orthotopic tumors. The team found that, when used in combination with radiation, trifluoperazine successfully delayed the growth of the tumors and significantly prolonged the overall survival of the animals. Combining radiation treatment with trifluoperazine extended survival in 100% of the mice to more than 200 days, compared to 67.7 days in the control group receiving only radiation. “Many preclinical glioblastoma studies report fairly small increases in overall survival in mice, and that rarely translates into benefits for patients,” said Pajonk, who is also a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. “But here we see pretty drastic effects in improved overall survival, and I find that very encouraging. It gives us hope that this is all going to translate into a benefit for people.” The team plans to start a clinical trial this summer for people with recurrent glioblastoma to test using dopamine receptor antagonist with radiation therapy. “I think we can find a combination of treatments with radiation that is very tolerable to patients and can do well,” said co-author Leia Nghiemphu, an associate professor of clinical neurology at the Geffen School of Medicine and principal investigator on the upcoming clinical trial. “The next step is to see if we can stop this resistance to radiation in humans.” The study was funded in part by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Specialized Programs of Research Excellence, or SPORE, at UCLA, which helps advance work in the prevention, detection and treatment of brain tumors. The lead author of the study is Kruttika Bhat, a postdoctoral fellow in Pajonk’s laboratory. Other authors are Mohammad Saki, Erina Vlashi, Fei Cheng, Sara Duhachek-Muggy, Claudia Alli, Garrett Yu, Paul Medina, Ling He, Robert Damoiseaux, Matteo Pellegrini, Nathan Zemke, Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, Dr. Linda Liau and Dr. Harley Kornblum, all of UCLA. To read the original article click here.

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Brain Tumor Surgery that Pushes Boundaries Boosts Patients Survival

AHA Publisher — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 08:00:24 +0000

UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center via NewsWise – Survival may more than double for adults with glioblastoma, the most common and deadly type of brain tumor, if neurosurgeons remove the surrounding tissue as aggressively as they remove the cancerous core of the tumor. Newswise — Survival may more than double for adults with glioblastoma, the most common and deadly type of brain tumor, if neurosurgeons remove the surrounding tissue as aggressively as they remove the cancerous core of the tumor. This discovery, reported in a retrospective study headed by researchers at UC San Francisco, is welcome news for those in the glioblastoma community, which celebrated its last breakthrough in 2005 with the introduction of the chemotherapy drug temozolomide. Removing the “non-contrast enhancing tumor” – so called because it does not light up on MRI when a contrast agent is injected into the vein – represents a paradigm shift for neurosurgeons, according to senior author and neurosurgeon Mitchel Berger, MD, director of the UCSF Brain Tumor Center. “Traditionally, the goal of neurosurgeons has been to achieve total resection, the complete removal of contrast-enhancing tumor,” said Berger, who is also affiliated with the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “This study shows that we have to recalibrate the way we have been doing things and, when safe, include non-contrast-enhancing tumor to achieve maximal resection.” Some 22,850 Americans are diagnosed each year with glioblastoma – one of the most relentless adult cancers and one that may be best known for claiming the lives of senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy, and the son of Vice President Joe Biden. The average survival for the 91 percent of glioblastoma patients whose tumor is characterized by IDH-wild-type mutations is 1.2 years, according to a 2019 study. However, the remaining 9 percent have a type of glioblastoma classified as IDH mutant, with average survival of 3.6 years. In their study, which publishes in JAMA Oncology on Feb. 6, 2020, the researchers tracked the outcomes of 761 newly diagnosed patients at UCSF who had been treated from 1997 through 2017. The patients, whose average age was 60, were divided into four groups with varying risk based on age, treatment protocols, and extent of resections of both contrast-enhancing and non-contrast-enhancing tumor. This article has been modified. To read the original article click here.

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Scientists Breach Brain Barriers to Attack Tumors

AHA Publisher — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 05:38:18 +0000

Yale University via Science Daily – The brain is equipped with barriers designed to keep out dangerous pathogens. Researchers have now found a novel way to circumvent the brain’s natural defenses when they’re counterproductive. To read the original article click here.

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New Treatment for Brain Tumors Uses Electrospun Fiber

AHA Publisher — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 08:00:47 +0000

University of Cincinnati via EurekAlert – Researchers with the University of Cincinnati used coaxial electrospinning to create a treatment for glioblastoma multiforme. A novel engineering process can deliver a safe and effective dose of medicine for brain tumors without exposing patients to toxic side effects from traditional chemotherapy. University of Cincinnati professor Andrew Steckl, working with researchers from Johns Hopkins University, developed a new treatment for glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Steckl’s Nanoelectronics Laboratory applied an industrial fabrication process called coaxial electrospinning to form drug-containing membranes. The treatment is implanted directly into the part of the brain where the tumor is surgically removed. The study was published in Nature Scientific Reports. “Chemotherapy essentially is whole-body treatment. The treatment has to get through the blood-brain barrier, which means the whole-body dose you get must be much higher,” Steckl said. “This can be dangerous and have toxic side-effects.” Steckl is an Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of electrical engineering in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. Coaxial electrospinning combines two or more materials into a fine fiber composed of a core of one material surrounded by a sheath of another. This fabrication process allows researchers to take advantage of the unique properties of each material to deliver a potent dose of medicine immediately or over time. “By selecting the base materials of the fiber and the thickness of the sheath, we can control the rate at which these drugs are released,” Steckl said. The electrospun fibers can rapidly release one drug for short-term treatment such as pain relief or antibiotics while an additional drug or drugs such as chemotherapy is released over a longer period, he said. “We can produce a very sophisticated drug-release profile,” Steckl said. The breakthrough is a continuation of work conducted by research partners and co-authors Dr. Henry Brem and Betty Tyler at Johns Hopkins University, who in 2003 developed a locally administered wafer treatment for brain tumors called Gliadel. Unlike previous treatments, electrospun fibers provide a more uniform dose over time, said UC research associate Daewoo Han, the study’s lead author. “For the current treatment, most drugs release within a week, but our discs presented the release for up to 150 days,” he said. Glioblastoma multiforme is a common and extremely aggressive brain cancer and is responsible for more than half of all primary brain tumors, according to the American Cancer Society. Each year more than 240,000 people around the world die from brain cancer. The electrospun fiber created for the study provided a tablet-like disk that increased the amount of medicine that could be applied, lowered the initial burst release and enhanced the sustainability of the drug release over time, the study found. Chemotherapy using electrospun fiber improved survival rates in three separate animal trials that examined safety, toxicity, membrane degradation and efficacy. “This represents a promising evolution for the current treatment of GBM,” the study concluded. While this study used a single drug, researchers noted that one advantage of electrospinning is the ability to dispense multiple drugs sequentially over a long-term release. The latest cancer treatments rely on a multiple-drug approach to prevent drug resistance and improve efficacy. Steckl said the study holds promise for treatments of other types of cancer. “Looking ahead, we are planning to investigate ‘cocktail’ therapy where multiple drugs for the combined treatment of difficult cancers are incorporated and released either simultaneously or sequentially from our fiber membranes,” Steckl said. To read the original article click here.

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