Cancer Drug May Help Brain Tumor Patients
Published Date: 05-08-2008 11:10 PM CT
In Health Watch: More than 21 thousand Americans are diagnosed with brain cancer each year. Now, doctors at the Mayo Clinic are hopeful that a drug approved to fight other types of cancer may help people with brain cancer. Vivien Williams has more. Every two weeks David Rose spends three hours at Mayo clinic receiving chemotherapy for a brain tumor called a glioblastoma. He started the experimental treatment about 9 months ago. David Rose says, "they said this is pretty much you're last chance." Standard treatment: surgery, radiation and other types of chemotherapy worked for a while, but the tumor kept coming back. Dr. Kurt Jaekle says, "his tumor was much more aggressive when it came back. It was dividing at a much more rapid rate. We thought it was pretty much the end for david at that point." But Dr. Kurt Jaeckle says a chemotherapy drug called Bevacizumab, which is FDA approved for colon and lung cancer, has reduced David's tumor to the point where you can't see it on an MRI. David Rose says, "it's gone. My tumor's gone." Tumor growth depends on blood flow from nearby vessels. These vessels grow into the tumor after receiving a signal from the tumor. That signal is a protein called VEGF.The medication David receives blocks the VEGF from attaching to receptors on the blood vessels. Without the signals to grow, the tumor can shrink. David Rose says, "It went from the size of an orange to nothing." This drug has not yet been approved by the FDA as a brain cancer treatment, but research suggests that it could be effective for more than 50% of the people who use it. Dr. Kurt Jaekle says, "the jury is still out if this will translate into patients living longer, staying disease-free for a longer period of time. But we're all excited."...Excited for David... who's living a normal life while battling a deadly disease. For Medical Edge, I'm Vivien Williams. For more information, visit the Medical Edge Website at keyc.tv/featured links.
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