A Crystal Ball For Brain Cancer?

Bronnie McNabb, 57, considers himself lucky. When his aggressive brain cancer returned after chemotherapy and radiation last winter, his UCLA doctor prescribed the off-label use of Avastin, a drug shown to quell cancers in the breast, colon and lung.

One month later, McNabb’s tumors had shrunk by 95 percent. Subsequent brain scans show no trace of his cancer at all. The former marathon runner, ordained minister and father of two says he hasn’t felt this good since his diagnosis last winter.

In welcome news for patients like McNabb, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Avastin last month for the treatment of brain cancer. The powerful drug shrinks tumors by choking off their blood supply. Half of patients don’t respond to the therapy, though, exposing them to unnecessary side effects and medication costing up to $10,000 per month.

Now UCLA scientists have uncovered a new way to image tumors and forecast which patients, like McNabb, are most likely to benefit from Avastin before starting a single dose of treatment. The findings are published in this month’s issue of the journal Radiology. Read more

Cancer-Fighting Drugs Delivered Right To The Tumor

An encapsulation breakthrough by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology may enable doctors to deliver anti-cancer drugs directly to tumors over extended periods of time, while preventing the systemic side effects of chemotherapy and other current cancer treatments.

The system consists of polymeric microcapsules containing human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) engineered to produce proteins that prevent cancer growth. The system is novel because it isolates and protects the encapsulated MSCs from their surroundings while allowing for the free exchange of nutrients and oxygen they need to survive.

In the journal FASEB, the researchers report that this system led to an 87% reduction in volume and an 83% reduction in weight of a treated glioma tumor in mice after two weeks of treatment.

According to lead researcher Prof. Marcelle Machluf of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, previous attempts to encapsulate cells that create anti-cancer drugs and implant them near cancerous tumors were unsuccessful mainly because the cells eventually triggered immune reactions in the body. Read more

World’s First Delivery Of Intra-Arterial Avastin Directly Into Brain Tumor

Neurosurgeons from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center performed the world’s first intra-arterial cerebral infusion of Avastin (bevacizumab) directly into a patient’s malignant brain tumor. This novel intra-arterial (IA) technique may expose the cancer to higher doses of the drug therapy, while possibly sparing the patient common side effects of receiving the drug intravenously (IV) or throughout their body.

The investigative procedure — called super selective intra-arterial cerebral infusion of Avastin — has been successfully performed on five patients with promising results. Details of the first case are scheduled for publication in the next issue of Journal of Experimental Therapeutics and Oncology.

The researchers are currently enrolling patients for the Phase I study, which will test the safety and tolerability of this new method of drug delivery. If proven successful, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell physician-scientists believe that this promising method may one day offer patients a new and better therapy for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a common type of brain cancer that has not responded well to currently available therapies. In addition, the authors believe that this technique may herald the birth of a new field of “interventional neuro-oncology.”

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