NEW THERAPIES FOR BRAIN TUMORS
PROMISING research is offering hope for brain tumor patients!
Experts say new treatments are on the horizon, as well as a potential blood test to diagnose glioblastoma — the most aggressive form of brain cancer.
“Researchers have struggled for decades to find new therapies to treat these deadly cancers,” explains University of Virginia’s
Dr. Daniel Lee, who says his group’s work strongly suggests CAR T-cell therapy could be a “game-changer.” The UVA team is focused on glioblastoma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), which currently lack effective treatments. Fewer than 7 percent of glioblastoma patients survive five years after diagnosis, and with DIPG, which mainly affects kids, life expectancy is only nine months.
The researchers are seeking to use CAR T-cell immunotherapy — already being utilized against other cancers, such as types of leukemia and lymphoma — to seek out and kill brain cancer cells. UVA scientists say they’ve identified vulnerabilities in these solid brain tumors, which could make CAR T-cell therapy successful.
T-cell treatments weaponize the body’s immune cells to become cancer killers. White blood cells — T-cells — are extracted from a patient’s blood, genetically modified and infused back into the body, where they multiply into a disease-fighting army. When the process was tested in mice, brain tumors shrank or disappeared, and the new cells proved longlasting, say researchers. Meanwhile, scientists led by Dr. Michael Berens, of TGen’s Glioma Research Lab, are planning a trial for a drug combo that could be effective for one in three glioblastoma patients. Researchers say pevonedistat and etoposide combined may help those whose cancer cells have lost the tumor-suppressing gene PTEN. If successful, the medications could be the first new FDA-approved glioblastoma drug treatment in over a decade! In addition, a team in the U.K. led by the University of Sussex’s Dr. Georgios Giamas say they’re close to developing a blood test to diagnose glioblastoma. Detection currently depends on symptoms, MRIs and invasive tissue biopsies — all of which can delay identifying the rapidly growing mass.