Brain Cancer Research

Progress against the brain cancer glioblastoma has been slow. Drs. Mark Gilbert and Terri Armstrong of NCI’s Neuro-Oncology Branch discuss why and what’s being done to change that.

Studies presented at the 2017 AACR annual meeting suggest that therapies which take advantage of the mutations in the IDH gene may be more effective than drugs that block it.

Brain cancer cells are heavily dependent on a constant supply of cholesterol to survive, a new study suggests. And in mice with brain tumors, treatment with a cholesterol-depleting drug slowed tumor growth and improved survival.

Results from two clinical trials show that treating patients with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide in addition to radiation therapy increased overall and progression-free survival.

Researchers who specialize in brain cancer are optimistic about immunotherapy’s prospects for improving outcomes in patients with this aggressive form of brain cancer.

Changes in the packaging of DNA in the cell nucleus may activate growth-promoting genes that cause cancer.

A patient with a papillary craniopharyngioma saw his tumor shrink more than 80 percent after treatment with a targeted drug that inhibits a mutant form of the BRAF protein.

TCGA researchers analyzed nearly 300 cases of diffuse low- and intermediate-grade gliomas, which together comprise lower-grade gliomas. LGGs occur mainly in adults and include astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas and oligoastrocytomas.

NCI's Dr. Mark Gilbert discusses new developments in neuro-oncology and the priorities of the Neuro-Oncology Branch.

Adults with low-grade gliomas, a form of brain tumor, who received chemotherapy following completion of radiation therapy lived longer than patients who received radiation therapy alone, according to long-term follow-up results from a NIH-supported randomized controlled clinical trial. Low-grade gliomas have a more indolent or slower growing behavior and better outcome compared to the more common high-grade gliomas such as glioblastoma. [Image copyright Mayo Clinic, 2012]

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) was the first cancer type to be systematically studied by TCGA in 2008. In a new, complementary report, TCGA experts examined more than 590 GBM samples--the largest to date utilizing genomic characterization techniques and nearly 400 more than were examined in 2008--to identify several additional significantly mutated genes in GBM implicated in the regulation of chromatin modification.

Patients with advanced cancer who watched a video that depicts options for end-of-life care were more certain of their end-of-life decision making than patients who only listened to a verbal narrative and were likely to choose comfort care over aggressive medical care for their end-of-life care preferences, according to an article published online November 30, 2009, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Long-term results from two clinical trials confirm that certain patients with rare brain tumors called anaplastic oligodendrogliomas live substantially longer if they are treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy rather than radiation alone.

In a new examination of United States cancer incidence data, investigators at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) reported that incidence trends have remained roughly constant for glioma, the main type of brain cancer hypothesized to be related to cell phone use.

A clinical trial has shown that addition of chemotherapy to radiation therapy leads to a near doubling of median survival time in patients with a form of brain tumor (oligodendroglioma) that carries a chromosomal abnormality called the 1p19q co-deletion. This abnormality is characterized by the simultaneous deletion of the short arm of chromosome 1 and long arm of chromosome 19. The presence of the chromosomal abnormality was associated with substantially better prognosis and marked improvements in survival in a treatment program of combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy compared to radiation therapy alone.

In this trial, patients up to age 18 who are newly diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG) or who have other high-grade gliomas that could not be completely resected will undergo radiation therapy and receive oral lenalidomide at increasing doses daily for 6 weeks, followed by lenalidomide alone.