Brain Tumor Vaccine

This will be too late for my dad, but it is very interesting way of treating glioma. I wish them every success with their trials.



UCSF News Office - UCSF launches new phase of brain tumor vaccine trial

The Brain Tumor Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco has initiated a Phase 2 clinical trial of an investigational vaccine for treating glioma, a recurrent cancer of the central nervous system that occurs primarily in the brain.

The primary objective of the new trial is to evaluate overall survival in patients receiving vitespen vaccination (trademarked as Oncophage).

In an earlier Phase 1 trial of the vaccine, UCSF researchers showed that it was effective in stimulating the patient’s immune system to attack tumor cells. Of the 12 patients treated, all showed an immune response.

An option for brain tumors.

Although this will be too late for my dad, it is great to hear of some advances.

I hope all this goes well.




Tailored virus kills brain cancer cells in mice

Tailored virus kills brain cancer cells in mice

Sept. 11, 2007
Courtesy M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
and World Science staff

A cus­tomized vi­rus in a mouse study killed stem cells that cause an ex­tremely ag­gres­sive, te­na­cious brain can­cer, re­search­ers re­port.

Sci­en­tists at the Un­ivers­ity of Tex­as M. D. An­der­son Can­cer Cen­ter in Hous­ton, Tex­as an­nounced the find­ings in the Sept. 18 is­sue of the Jour­nal of the Na­t­ional Can­cer In­sti­tute.

The vi­rus “can tar­get and elim­i­nate the cells that drive brain tu­mors,” by es­sen­tially forc­ing them to eat them­selves, said study co-author Juan Fue­yo. The re­search­ers said they ex­pect to sub­mit a re­quest to launch a clin­i­cal tri­al of the vi­rus, called Delta-24-RGD, this month.

They tested the vi­rus against the most ag­gres­sive brain tu­mor, glioblas­toma mul­ti­forme, which orig­i­nates in spe­cial­ized cells known as glia, Fue­yo said. Glia sur­round and sup­port neu­rons, the brain cells that con­duct elec­tri­cal sig­nals.

Glioblas­toma mul­ti­forme re­sists radia­t­ion and chem­o­ther­a­py treat­ments and is so in­va­sive that sur­gery al­most nev­er elim­i­nates it, Fue­yo and col­leagues said. Pa­tients suf­fer­ing from this ma­lig­nan­cy live on av­er­age for about 14 months with treat­ment.

lack of effective therapies?? why were we not told.

It is interesting what you read. Especially after the event, this little quote caught my eye.

"lack of effective therapies" we were never told about that ever.....


Brain Tumor Stem Cells Killed By Experimental Anti-Cancer Drug

Our study lends evidence to the idea that the lack of effective therapies for glioblastoma may be due to the survival of a rare population of cancer stem cells that appear immune to conventional radiation and chemotherapy," says Charles G. Eberhart, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pathology, ophthalmology and oncology, who led the work. "Hedgehog inhibition kills these cancer stem cells and prevents cancer from growing and may thus develop into the first stem cell-directed therapy for glioblastoma."

survival less than one year! Glioblastoma

This sounds like my dad.
It is likely he will lat less than a year.


Expression of Interleukin-13 Receptor {alpha}2 in Glioblastoma Multiforme: Implications for Targeted Therapies -- Jarboe et al. 67 (17): 7983 -- Cancer Research

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common primary malignant brain tumor and despite treatment with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, the median survival of patients with glioblastoma multiforme is ~1 year.

brain tumor symptoms and steroids

Funny I often wonder if my dad's brain tumor symptoms are related to the dexamethasone or the tumor itself.

I know these drugs help relieve the brain tumor symptoms, but sometimes I wonder what the cost is.

It is the devil or the deep blue sea really. In our case you take the dex while under treatment then continue on. once dad stopped taking the dexmeth he brain tumor symptoms went wild. We could see daily changes the second he stopped the dex. That was a scary time in our lives.

We were told, now I will try to repeat this.
The dex stops swelling of the brain, since dad had had 2 brain surgery operations in a matter of a week that was a concern.
The dex also has the side effect of slowing the tumor down. this combination will often see a reduction in brain tumor symptoms.
And it did in our case.
However once you come off dex , and need to go back on it, it is much less effective.

There really are lots of tough questions to make.


News 8 Austin | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | Better brain tumor help

For thousands of patients with brain tumors, managing the side effects of treatment is half the battle. Many patients must take steroids, like dexamethasone, to reduce the swelling in their brains. Without these potent drugs, the swelling around the tumor can cause neurological problems.

"The swelling can sometimes cause a much worse deficit than the tumor does by itself. Steroids work very well at suppressing the swelling, in general, but the problem is, over time, steroids can carry a lot of side effects," Dr. Nick Avgeropoulos said.

Some of those side effects include
• Insomnia
• Psychosis
• Blood pressure and blood sugar irregularities
• Weight gain
• Muscle weakness

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Brain Tumor Questions to Ask

Brain Tumor questions to ask.


What You Need To Know About™ Brain Tumors - National Cancer Institute

A person who needs a biopsy may want to ask the doctor the following questions:

*

Why do I need a biopsy? How will the biopsy affect my treatment plan?
*

What kind of biopsy will I have?
*

How long will it take? Will I be awake? Will it hurt?
*

What are the chances of infection or bleeding after the biopsy? Are there any other risks?
*

How soon will I know the results?
*

If I do have a brain tumor, who will talk to me about treatment? When?

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amazing brain tumor surgery

Surgery with a smile: wide-awake brain surgery

If he's awake and I keep taking tumor out and he keeps moving and he's fine, I can keep pushing the resection," Dr. Mintz explained before the surgery. The goal: excise more than 90 percent of Mr. Dubovich's cancer, called a glioblastoma, because studies indicate that can lengthen survival time.

"We know we can't remove the entire tumor," the surgeon said. "At some point, we have to stop because the tumor is intermingled with normal brain matter."

Imagine the brain is the white paint in a bucket, and the tumor is a glob of red paint dropped into it, Dr. Mintz said. There are very red areas that could be scooped out, but then some pinky-white parts, whitey-pink parts and then white.

"As you get into that whitey-pink area, you're taking more brain than tumor," he said, and that could unacceptably impair the patient's function.