Brain cancer breakthough

SCIENTISTS in Glasgow have made a breakthrough discovery that could help save the lives of cancer patients.

A research team based at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre at Gartnavel have found that a drug used to treat ovarian cancer could also be used to treat brain tumours.

The study found the drug, olaparib, can leak through the blood brain barrier and reach difficult to treat brain tumours.

The research will be presented to the National Cancer Research Institute’s Cancer Conference in Liverpool, today.

Early trials involving 48 brain tumour patients suggest it reached the tumour in high enough levels to be considered effective for treatment.

It was trialled on patients with glioblastoma, a common type of brain tumour affecting around 265 Scots a year, but which is notoriously hard to treat.

The study and trial was funded by Cancer Research UK and managed by the charity’s Centre for Drug Develop- ment and Beatson.

Dr Nigel Blackburn, Cancer Research UK’s director of drug development, said: “While overall survival for cancer is improving, survival for brain tumours is still very low and the blood brain barrier is a significant pharmacological obstacle.

“Experimental trials like this, which test new ways to reach these hard to treat tumours, are crucially important if we are to see more patients survive their cancer.”

Scientists looked at tumour samples and found that the drug penetrates the core of the tumour as well as the surrounding areas which contain smaller numbers of cancerous cells. Cancer cells in these regions cannot be removed by surgery making reaching them with drugs crucial.

Professor Anthony Chalmers, lead researcher and Chair of Clinical Oncology at the University of Glasgow, said: “By showing that this drug reaches brain tumours, we are in a much stronger position to use it to make current treatments more effective.” led from the