A glioma is a type of primary tumor that starts in the glial cells of the brain or spinal cord. They are cancerous but some are extremely slow to develop. Gliomas comprise about 30 percent of all brain tumors and central nervous system tumours, and 80 percent of all malignant brain tumours.
A cancer vaccine, or oncovaccine, is a vaccine that either treats existing cancer or prevents development of cancer. Vaccines that treat existing cancer are known as therapeutic cancer vaccines or tumor antigen vaccines. Some of the vaccines are "autologous", being prepared from samples taken from the patient, and are specific to that patient.
Glioblastoma, previously known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is the most aggressive and most common type of cancer that originates in the brain, and has a very poor prognosis for survival. Initial signs and symptoms of glioblastoma are nonspecific. They may include headaches, personality changes, nausea, and symptoms similar to those of a stroke. Symptoms often worsen rapidly and may progress to unconsciousness.
In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam radiotherapy is that the dose of protons is deposited over a narrow range of depth; hence in minimal entry, exit, or scattered radiation dose to healthy nearby tissues.
Bevacizumab, sold under the brand name Avastin among others, is a monoclonal antibody medication used to treat a number of types of cancers and a specific eye disease. For cancer, it is given by slow injection into a vein (intravenous) and used for colon cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and renal-cell carcinoma. In many of these diseases it is used as a first-line therapy. For age-related macular degeneration it is given by injection into the eye (intravitreal).
A chemotherapy regimen is a regimen for chemotherapy, defining the drugs to be used, their dosage, the frequency and duration of treatments, and other considerations. In modern oncology, many regimens combine several chemotherapy drugs in combination chemotherapy. The majority of drugs used in cancer chemotherapy are cytostatic, many via cytotoxicity.
Lomustine is an alkylating nitrosourea compound used in chemotherapy. It is closely related to semustine and is in the same family as streptozotocin. It is a highly lipid-soluble drug, thus it crosses the blood–brain barrier. This property makes it ideal for treating brain tumors, which is its primary use, although it is also used to treat Hodgkin lymphoma as a second-line option. It has also been used in veterinary practice as a treatment for cancers in cats and dogs.
Cediranib is a potent inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor tyrosine kinases.
Cilengitide is a molecule designed and synthesized at the Technical University Munich in collaboration with Merck KGaA in Darmstadt. It is based on the cyclic peptide cyclo(-RGDfV-), which is selective for αv integrins, which are important in angiogenesis, and other aspects of tumor biology. Hence, it is under investigation for the treatment of glioblastoma, where it may act by inhibiting angiogenesis, and influencing tumor invasion and proliferation.
Evofosfamide is a compound being evaluated in clinical trials for the treatment of multiple tumor types as a monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapeutic agents and other targeted cancer drugs.
James L. Gulley is an American cancer researcher and the Director of the Medical Oncology Service at National Cancer Institute.
Fosbretabulin is a microtubule destabilizing experimental drug, a type of vascular-targeting agent, a drug designed to damage the vasculature of cancer tumours causing central necrosis. It is a derivative of combretastatin. It is formulated as the salts fosbretabulin disodium and fosbretabulin tromethamine.
Plus Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing innovative, targeted radiotherapeutics for adults and children with rare and difficult-to-treat cancers. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States.
Tower Cancer Research Foundation (TCRF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to clinical research, patient support and community education. It was established in 1996 in Beverly Hills, California.
Neutron capture therapy (NCT) is a type of radiotherapy for treating locally invasive malignant tumors such as primary brain tumors, recurrent cancers of the head and neck region, and cutaneous and extracutaneous melanomas. It is a two-step process: first, the patient is injected with a tumor-localizing drug containing the stable isotope boron-10 (10B), which has a high propensity to capture low energy "thermal" neutrons. The neutron cross section of 10B is 1,000 times more than that of other elements, such as nitrogen, hydrogen, or oxygen, that occur in tissue. In the second step, the patient is radiated with epithermal neutrons, the sources of which in the past have been nuclear reactors and now are accelerators that produce higher energy epithermal neutrons. After losing energy as they penetrate tissue, the resultant low energy "thermal" neutrons are captured by the 10B atoms. The resulting decay reaction yields high-energy alpha particles that kill the cancer cells that have taken up enough 10B.
PROSTVAC is a cancer immunotherapy candidate in clinical development by Bavarian Nordic for the treatment of all prostate cancer although clinical trials are focusing on more advanced cases of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). PROSTVAC is a vaccine designed to enable the immune system to recognize and attack prostate cancer cells by triggering a specific and targeted T cell immune response to cancer cells that express the tumor-associated antigen prostate-specific antigen (PSA).
CUSP9 [Coordinated Undermining of Survival Paths] is one of several cancer treatment protocols using re-purposed older drugs to interfere with cancer cell's growth signaling rather than directly killing them with cytotoxic drugs. CUSP9 is a treatment specifically targeted to glioblastoma that adds to a traditional cancer cell killing drug, temozolomide, nine older, non-cytotoxic drugs to block growth factors that enhance or drive glioblastoma growth - aprepitant blocks NK-1, auranofin inhibits thioredoxin reductase, captopril inhibits angiotensin converting enzyme, celecoxib blocks cyclooxygenase-2, disulfiram blocks aldehyde dehydrogenase, itraconazole blocks Hedgehog signaling, minocycline inhibits metalloproteinase-2 and -9, quetiapine inhibits RANKL, sertraline inhibits translation-controlled tumor protein [TCTP]. These targets have been shown to be active in promoting glioblastoma growth.
Atezolizumab, sold under the brand name Tecentriq among others, is a monoclonal antibody medication used to treat urothelial carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), hepatocellular carcinoma and alveolar soft part sarcoma, but discontinued for use in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). It is a fully humanized, engineered monoclonal antibody of IgG1 isotype against the protein programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1).
Epitopoietic Research Corporation (ERC) is a Belgian Pharmaceutical company that is specialized in the development of ERC1671, a treatment for Glioblastoma multiforme, which is the most aggressive form of brain cancer. In 2019 ERC provided treatment under the US Federal Right-to-try law.
Bradley J. Monk is an American gynecologic oncologist, academician and researcher. He is a professor on the Clinical Scholar Track in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as at the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. He also serves as Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.
