2013 National Brain Tumor Society Summit Presentations

I didn’t attend this summit, but wish I did. 

To make up for it, I watched the keynote address from Dr. Webster Cavenee, “…a world renowned researcher and long standing, trusted advisor, from Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the University of California San Diego.” According to the NBTS website he delivered  “…a keynote presentation describing our most innovative strategic research initiative to date, our Defeat GBM Research Collaborative, and the potential for a future global model of integrated brain cancer research.”

His presentation is informative, straight-forward and pretty blunt about the complexity and difficulty of the task at hand. Here’s a link: http://www.braintumor.org/about-us/nbts-summit/

On the same web page is a link to the presentation by Michael Nathanson, Chairman of the NBTS Board of Directors, about work being done by the National Brain Tumor Society,  in which he discussed:

“Our Clinical Trial Endpoints Initiative – a program with the support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aimed at increasing the volume and speed of approvals for new treatment;

Advancing Research to Therapies (ART) for Brain Tumors – a new program aiming to translate laboratory science into commercialized treatments by bringing together researchers, biotech and pharma executives, investors, and patients;

Advocating for Oral Chemotherapy Parity legislation protecting patients from paying out-of-pocket for life-saving treatments just because they are prescribed in pill form; and much more.”

Lastly, the site also provides a link to Summit’s “The State of Research Breakfast” presentation in which experts in the field and National Brain Tumor Society leadership briefed the audience on the “current state of pediatric brain tumor research and the future of our work.”

Want to blog but worried about the intricacies of building a website? Have no fear, “Blog for a Cure – Cancer Sucks” is waiting for you.

I just found this site and it’s just for cancer victims. Actually, it’s for every kind of cancer victim as you can post your own blog under the type of cancer you have. And, depressingly, there’s a whole lotta cancers out there.

These two sentences from the website are all you need to know:

“The Blog for the Cure was started by Jill who was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2005. The idea came to her during her treatment and the site was launched in August, 2006.

The mission of Blog for a Cure is to make life a little bit easier for cancer survivors by providing a free personal web publishing service for them and continuing to develop and upgrade this service to be the best it can be for its users.”

Interested? Here’s a link:http://www.blogforacure.com/

Using nanotechnology to suppress glioblastoma

Here’s good news, possibly wonderful news from ScienceDaily.com: “…a Northwestern University research team is the first to demonstrate delivery of a drug that turns off a critical gene in this complex cancer, increasing survival rates significantly in animals with the deadly disease.” Here’s a link to the web posting about the success to date in mice: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131030142813.htm

What’s particularly nifty about this protocol is that “The novel therapeutic, which is based on nanotechnology, is small and nimble enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and get to where it is needed -- the brain tumor. Designed to target a specific cancer-causing gene in cells, the drug simply flips the switch of the troublesome oncogene to "off," silencing the gene. This knocks out the proteins that keep cancer cells immortal.”

What I like about this approach is that it seems to bode well for addressing other diseases: "This is a beautiful marriage of a new technology with the genes of a terrible disease," said Chad A. Mirkin, a nanomedicine expert and a senior co-author of the study. "Using highly adaptable spherical nucleic acids, we specifically targeted a gene associated with GBM and turned it off in vivo. This proof-of-concept further establishes a broad platform for treating a wide range of diseases, from lung and colon cancers to rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis”.

Appropriately, the article notes that “Thanks to the Human Genome Project and genomics research over the last two decades, there is an enormous number of genetic targets; having the right therapeutic agents and delivery materials has been the challenge.”

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_11486779_vector-seamless-dna.html'>happyroman / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

“How to Build a Happier Brain”

That’s the theme of an October 23^rd article by Julie Beck in the Atlantic magazine: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/how-to-build-a-happier-brain/280752/

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from presenting to brain tumor/stroke victims and caregivers, they all could be happier. That’s not to say that these victims haven’t been unfairly assaulted with horrific diseases, they have. I wish, though, they could enjoy the moments of happiness or fun or humor that drifts into their lives a bit more.

That thought is at the heart of this article, learning to enjoy the moments you should be able to enjoy instead of relentlessly focusing on the negative.

Beck says it much better, though, saying “There is a motif, in fiction and in life, of people having wonderful things happen to them, but still ending up unhappy. We can adapt to anything, it seems—you can get your dream job, marry a wonderful human, finally get 1 million dollars or Twitter followers—eventually we acclimate and find new things to complain about.”

Beck goes on to cite Dr. Rick Hanson, a neuropsychologist, a member of U.C. Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center's advisory board, and author of the book Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, in which he observes that “our brains are naturally wired to focus on the negative, which can make us feel stressed and unhappy even though there are a lot of positive things in our lives.”

The rest of the article relates an interview with Dr. Hanson in which he discusses “A neuropsychological approach to happiness, by meeting core needs (safety, satisfaction, and connection) and training neurons to overcome a negativity bias.”

As an exercise advocate, I also want to point out that, regarding exercise, “Research shows that exercise is a very good physical health factor obviously, but it also confers mental health benefits. For example, regular exercise is roughly as powerful on average for mild depression as medication is, studies show.”

Again, here’s a link to the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/how-to-build-a-happier-brain/280752/

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_14381169_positive-thinking-word-cloud-concept-in-red-capital-letters-with-great-terms-such-as-good-mental-tho.html'>mybaitshop / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

It’s Just Benign.com – online “Watch & Wait Forum Discussion

 

Following up on yesterday’s posting, here’s a link to a rich “Watch & Wait” discussion on Itsjustbenign.com - http://www.itsjustbenign.org/forum/topics/dealing-with-watching-and   

BTW - Beth Rosenthal is the fierce founder of It's Just Benign and a benign brain stem glioma survivor. 

John

PS - Please know that It's Just Benign is not some well-funded non-profit and, as such, charges visitors a princely $15/year to keep the website online.