A new treatment approach for an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma has proven to be 100 percent effective in mice, and could contribute towards better therapies for one of the deadliest and most common forms of brain tumour in humans. The approach centers around a novel gel that can reach areas of the brain that surgery might miss to kill off any lingering cancer cells after surgery.
Previous therapies including Gliadel have tried to prevent glioblastoma tumour recurrence by also coating the cavity left behind after surgery, but none have seen such promising results as this latest gel solution.
“We don’t usually see 100 percent survival in mouse models of this disease,” said Betty Tyler, a co-author and associate professor of neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who was involved in the development of Gliadel, in a statement. “Thinking that there is potential for this new hydrogel combination to change that survival curve for glioblastoma patients is very exciting.”
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The gel therapy was only found to be 100 percent effective when combined with surgery, however. Simply injecting the gel directly into the brain without first removing the initial tumour only saw a survival rate of 50 percent in the mice study.
The gel also comes with the added benefit of seemingly boosting the immune response to glioblastoma, as surviving mice that were challenged with further glioblastoma tumours were able to eradicate them without medication. It’s possible that the gel prevents tumour cells from being able to hide from the body’s immune system as is often seen in this kind of brain cancer.
The team now hopes to take their findings to clinical trials and work towards establishing if the same approach can be effective in humans.
The study is published in PNAS.
Source: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
