New Treatment for (some) Medulloblastoma tumors

Here’s some good news I just read on ScienceDaily.com, “A targeted therapy already used to treat advanced skin cancer is also effective against the most common subtype of the brain tumor medulloblastoma in adults and should be considered for treatment of newly diagnosed patients, according to research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.” Here’s a link to the article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150729155241.htm

 

To be clear, in case you aren’t a regular reader of my blog, I hate brain tumors, and I especially hate brain tumors that attack children. Unfortunately, that’s just what medulloblastoma does. According to the article, “Medulloblastoma develops in the cerebellum at the base of the skull and involves four different subtypes, each with different genetic alterations. The tumor is diagnosed in as many as 400 children and adolescents annually in the U.S., making it the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor. (I added the bold type)

I hate that. Some poor child who hasn’t done anything to anybody gets whacked with a sinister, deadly, uncaring malignant brain tumor. Every time I read about these my heart goes out to the kids, their parents, their family and friends.

As usual with brain tumors, the treatment is not a blanket cure for all afflicted as the research team reports that “"While it was disappointing that not all medulloblastoma patients with the SHH subtype will benefit, for the right patients these results mark the beginning of a new era of targeted therapy for treatment of this tumor," said first and corresponding author Giles Robinson, M.D., an assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Oncology. ”The findings also highlight the importance of ongoing research to identify the genetic alterations that define who the right patients are and help identify those most likely to benefit from this drug as well as those for whom different therapy is needed.”

Right about now you might be asking yourself the question “What is the “SHH subtype?” or some other important and related question. 

If you’ve read any of my other postings, you will know that I haven’t a clue. But if you are a scientist or doctor of have taken a lot of medical coursework, here’s a link to the journal abstract in the Journal of Clinical Oncology which explains the : http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/early/2015/07/08/JCO.2014.60.1591

The National Institute of Health: Adult Brain Tumor Info

As I read brain tumor blogs and victim support sites, I constantly see cries for information, i.e.

• What is a ‘benign brain tumor?
• What is a “Grade I brain tumor and how is that different from a Grade II or III or IV?
• What are typical brain tumor symptoms?

Much of the content on these personal blogs and websites are pretty good. Some isn’t. Big hospitals often have their own sites and they’re often quite good.

I’d like to suggest, though, that you visit the National Cancer Institute’s website for information about brain cancer: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/adultbrain/Patient/page1#Keypoint15

It has a “patient” version and a “Health Professional” version. I like that they’ve got a version that I, as a victim, can read and understand.

So, the next time you talk to a victim, consider steering them here for starters.

John

PS – I also like the American Brain Tumor Association site: http://www.abta.org/

“Breaching the blood brain barrier to improve treatment of brain tumors”

This is the headline of an article I just read posted on Technology.org: http://www.technology.org/2014/01/21/breaching-blood-brain-barrier-improve-treatment-brain-tumors/

The first sentence nicely summarizes my (previous) understanding of the blood-brain barrier: “The effectiveness of most cancer treatments targeting the central nervous system (CNS) has been limited due to body’s own defenses, particularly the blood brain barrier, which is difficult to breach for most conventional therapies.”

Gretchen Reynold’s in her thoughtful book, The First 20 Minutes, explained the “blood-brain” issue so simply and eloquently I felt like this was an insurmountable barrier.

Well it was…until the brainiacs (i.e. scientists) at University of Chicago “…showed that intranasal administration of stem cell-based therapeutics may be effective in breaching the blood brain barrier and treating gliomas – the most common type of brain tumor – in mice.”

Ok, this is mice not people so I’m not jumping up and down just yet. 

But the article says that “This findings suggest that this method may be effective for treating medulloblastomas and other cerebellar tumors, which are particularly common in children.”

When they figure that out, I will be jumping up and down.

John

PS – if you are a brainiac yourself, here’s a link to the abstract in the journal of Molecular Therapy http://www.nature.com/mt/journal/vaop/naam/abs/mt2013199a.html

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_19698894_human-blood-health-care-and-medical-concept-with-red-blood-cells-flowing-in-a-vein-with-one-in-the-s.html'>lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo</a>