Thema: Presse: New hope for brain tumors
Presse: New hope for brain tumors
Katja[a]
14.03.2006 10:18:00
Reported March 15, 2006
New Hope for Brain Tumors
Glioblastoma is the most common and the deadliest of brain cancers. It strikes all ages, including children. Now a new treatment is giving patients hope for the very first time.
Dave Herbert was happily enjoying life when something went terribly wrong. "I was reading the paper and all of a sudden I couldn´t read every other word," he says. An MRI of his brain showed Herbert had a glioblastoma and he could expect to live six months.
Surgeons can usually cut the tumor out, but there´s one problem. One or two inches from where the tumor is located there are microscopic tumor cells mixed in with normal cells.
Until now, nothing could kill the stray cells, so the tumor always came back. Patients rarely survived beyond 15 months. But Herbert was diagnosed five years ago.
"What´s most impressive is there´s no evidence of any tumor coming back," says Sandeep Kunwar, M.D., a neurosurgeon at University of California, San Francisco.
Herbert was the first person ever to receive a new drug and a new way of delivering it to the brain. Dr. Kunwar inserted slim tubes into Herbert´s brain to infuse the drug IL 13-PE38QQR.
"It´s a molecularly-targeted drug," Dr. Kunwar tells Ivanhoe. "It binds to tumor cells within the brain without damaging the normal tissue." That means patients retain cognitive function and can do just about anything they please.
Early studies show out of 36 patients, nine are alive two to five years later. Six are cancer-free!
Dr. Kunwar says, "For the first time, what it´s shows us is we´re on the right track."
"I want to see my grandchildren graduate from college," Herbert says. A wish that everyone´s hoping will come true.
Right now, IL 13-PE38QQR is being given in a one-time dose and infuses over a three-day period. Researchers have not observed any major side effects. More clinical trials are under way on 300 patients in 55 centers throughout the world.
New Hope for Brain Tumors
Glioblastoma is the most common and the deadliest of brain cancers. It strikes all ages, including children. Now a new treatment is giving patients hope for the very first time.
Dave Herbert was happily enjoying life when something went terribly wrong. "I was reading the paper and all of a sudden I couldn´t read every other word," he says. An MRI of his brain showed Herbert had a glioblastoma and he could expect to live six months.
Surgeons can usually cut the tumor out, but there´s one problem. One or two inches from where the tumor is located there are microscopic tumor cells mixed in with normal cells.
Until now, nothing could kill the stray cells, so the tumor always came back. Patients rarely survived beyond 15 months. But Herbert was diagnosed five years ago.
"What´s most impressive is there´s no evidence of any tumor coming back," says Sandeep Kunwar, M.D., a neurosurgeon at University of California, San Francisco.
Herbert was the first person ever to receive a new drug and a new way of delivering it to the brain. Dr. Kunwar inserted slim tubes into Herbert´s brain to infuse the drug IL 13-PE38QQR.
"It´s a molecularly-targeted drug," Dr. Kunwar tells Ivanhoe. "It binds to tumor cells within the brain without damaging the normal tissue." That means patients retain cognitive function and can do just about anything they please.
Early studies show out of 36 patients, nine are alive two to five years later. Six are cancer-free!
Dr. Kunwar says, "For the first time, what it´s shows us is we´re on the right track."
"I want to see my grandchildren graduate from college," Herbert says. A wish that everyone´s hoping will come true.
Right now, IL 13-PE38QQR is being given in a one-time dose and infuses over a three-day period. Researchers have not observed any major side effects. More clinical trials are under way on 300 patients in 55 centers throughout the world.
Katja[a]
