The IBTA’s monthly e-News has been released and has emailed to all subscribers. Emailed to over 5,000 people around the globe, including clinicians, patients, researchers and others, it gives a round-up of the latest research and treatment developments, news about brain tumour patient organisations around the world, and key forthcoming neuro-oncology scientific and patient conferences. You can sign up to receive the e-News every month by registering here.
This month’s highlights
You can read the IBTA e-News December 2022 edition in full online here.
Some highlights from this month’s round-up:
- According to a study published in the Journal of Controlled Release, researchers have potentially developed a way for anticancer drugs to pass through the body’s protective blood-brain-barrier and into brain tumours. In experiments on mice with glioblastoma tumours, the treatment, called Pt(IV)-M13, led to longer survival when compared to those mice which received no treatment or which were given cisplatin only.
- SurVaxM, a vaccine that stimulates the immune system to target a molecule (survivin) present at high levels on glioblastoma cells, has been found to be safe and well tolerated by patients being treated for newly diagnosed glioblastoma, according to results of a clinical trial published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
- Using machine learning technology (a type of artificial intelligence), researchers have developed computer software that can analyse MRI images to precisely predict the different boundaries of, and tissue areas within, a glioblastoma tumour better – it is claimed – than existing systems, thus aiding surgical and radiotherapy treatments, according to research published in Nature Communications.
- Research presented at the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) 27th Annual Meeting, held in Florida, USA last month, has shown that in trials of immunotherapy for glioblastoma, women have significantly longer survival than men. Researchers analysed data from ten trials of glioblastoma patients who received immunotherapy, including five trials of vaccine-based immunotherapy and found that women were 15% more likely to be alive at one year in all trials, and 29% more likely in vaccine-based trials.
- A study on rats published in Science Advances suggests that lowering the temperature of a glioblastoma tumour may lead to improved survival. By using a purpose-built device to cool the glioblastoma tumours in the rats’ brains to between 20 and 25°C (68 and 77°F), researchers were able to stop tumour growth.
- Results of a Europe-wide study (EPI-CT) involving data from 658,752 children and young adults that examined the potential link between CT scans in these age groups and brain cancer in later life have been published in The Lancet Oncology. Results showed a strong link between the number of CT scans a person receives before the age of 22 and the likelihood of them developing a cancerous brain tumour, including glioma, in later life.
- Four sites across the US and Canada have begun a phase 3 clinical trial to investigate whether a focused ultrasound device used with an injection of microbubbles can boost the effect of immunotherapy in patients who have brain tumours that have spread (metastasised) from non-small cell lung cancer.
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