Researchers of Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Columbia Initiative in Systems Biology have discovered two genes that appear to work together as master switches to turn on hundreds of other genes that drive the most aggressive forms of brain cancer: they hope their findings will help develop new approaches to treat these incurable tumors. These are the findings of a study published in the advanced online issue of the journal Nature.

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Roche Holding AG said cancer drug Avastin could play an important role in improving the daily lives of patients with the most aggressive form of brain cancer. An analysis of the phase II BRAIN study of Avastin alone or in combination with irinotecan chemotherapy for the treatment of relapsed or progressive glioblastoma demonstrated that the six months Avastin-based therapy improved patients’ chances of remaining alive without worsening their disease and had additional positive impact on patients.

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. has presented preliminary, promising clinical data from a Phase I trial, evaluating ICT-107, the company’s dendritic cell-based cancer vaccine product candidate for the treatment of glioblastoma. ICT-107 was well tolerated, and no significant adverse events were reported. The Phase I clinical trial of ICT-107 was conducted to evaluate the safety and tolerability of the cancer vaccine in patients with glioblastoma, the most common and malignant type of brain cancer. The trial enrolled 19 patients and was conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

A novel drug delivery system has been developed by scientists from the USA, Canada and France which can cross the blood-brain barrier to reach the cancer cells in the brain and kill them. Currently, the technology is in Phase I of its clinical trial. At present, not even 5 % of drugs can cross this barrier. The non-invasive tool is being developed by Angiochem Inc.