Brain Tumour Research is delighted to announce a £75,000 funding boost to extend the pioneering 'super sponge’ research project at Cardiff University, accelerating progress towards improved treatments for glioblastoma, the most common high-grade brain tumour in adults. This work is one of our Funded Initiatives and builds on a £500,000 project award, delivered in partnership with the Medical Research Council (MRC).
In this blog, we caught up with Dr Ben Newland, who is leading the research with a team of researchers across the UK. Dr Newland knows first-hand the devastating impact of glioblastoma, having lost his father Nick to the disease in 2023.
What is a super sponge and how can it help tackle glioblastoma?
We have designed a unique sponge like material that can be inserted into the space left after surgery to remove a glioblastoma. One of the major challenges for treating glioblastoma is the blood-brain barrier, which does a very effective job of keeping chemotherapy out of the brain. Using this implantable approach, we are getting around that problem and the material is designed to deliver combinations of anti cancer drugs directly to remaining tumour cells left in the brain after surgery. We aim to help limit tumour recurrence by targeting those cells left behind and to reduce off-target side effects of drugs by delivering right where cancer cells will be.
What drugs will be inside the sponge?
We want to repurpose existing anti-cancer drugs rather than creating new ones. This is because we want to move quickly to improve outcomes for brain tumour patients and drugs that have already been licensed in one disease should hopefully be easier to progress through trials. With this new funding we are screening thousands of drugs in the laboratory used in cancer and other diseases to identify those that cause the most harm to glioblastoma cells, while having the least impact on healthy brain cells.
How far along is the work and what are the next steps?
We are still at the laboratory stage – we've made the super sponge and tested that it can be safely implanted into mice and left there for a long time. And we’ve shown in laboratory tests that the sponge can release drugs over many months. What we need to do now is start lacing the sponges with drugs and test in animal models, to build enough data to enter a clinical trial. The jump from lab to clinical trial is really hard, but I am determined to try and make a difference for patients.
What inspires you in your work?
My mum was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease when I was younger and as I was starting my PhD in materials science, I knew I wanted to build something to help people like her. I was working on implantable devices that could counteract the neuronal death that occurs in Parkinson’s to help slow down symptom progression. Over time, I realised that the approach we were taking could be adapted to brain tumours. The survival rates for tumours such as glioblastoma are so utterly shocking. And then it all got very close to home.
I had started to notice my Dad was acting out of character, but he was nearly 80 and a full-time carer for my mum, so I didn’t think too much about it other than maybe it was tiredness. But then one day he started slurring his speech and by the next day he couldn’t really walk. My brother took him to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen and I headed over from Cardiff to be told that he had an abscess on his brain that needed draining. Working on glioblastoma, all I could think was ‘thank goodness it’s not a brain tumour’. But something was playing on my mind and I asked around through my own contacts to see if someone could look at the MRI scan. I was advised my dad had a glioblastoma and at his age he needed to get home and be on palliative care. I went into hospital the next morning to tell the medical team and get him discharged.
I was open and honest with my dad about the diagnosis and prognosis. He was an engineer, he dealt in fact and logic. Looking back, I do sometimes wonder whether I did the right thing as he became very apathetic. But you have to make the best decisions with the information you have at the time. I’m one of four brothers and we all pulled together to look after Mum and Dad, along with my wife and kids. Mum was in the initial stages of dementia but she knew what was going on and they could spend that time together, although communication was tricky as Dad’s hearing was poor and Mum’s Parkinson’s medication made her voice very faint. Sadly, he died just weeks later. It was all so quick.
My mum passed away last year as well. The last few years have really brought home the devastating impact of neurological diseases and I am more determined than ever before for our innovation in the lab to make it into clinical trials. Sustained funding and collaborative working make that possible and I would like to thank everyone who donates and fundraises for Brain Tumour Research for making this work possible.
This Glioblastoma Awareness Week (13th-17th July), learn more about this devastating type of brain tumour, discover how our research and campaigning is getting us closer to new treatments, and find out how your donations will help us find a cure. Click here to learn more.
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