The biggest UK cancer news this week has been that we are lagging behind some other countries in survival rates for some forms of the disease.
In terms of brain tumours there are two areas that are seen as holding a huge potential for improving outcomes one is immunotherapy and the other is proton beam therapy and this is a promising paediatric proton beam therapy study.
A possible barrier to immunotherapy and work into whether a lethal brain tumour shields itself from immune attack is being conducted at Brunel University in Uxbridge.
With getting new drugs to market being both lengthy and costly some repurposing news is always welcome.
CRUK are funding some US based research into advanced sequencing technology to decode the messages or signals that help brain tumours grow, in the hope of finding new ways to treat the disease in children.
According to this US study many factors contribute to the poor survival of malignant brain tumour patients, some of which are not easily remedied. However, one factor to the lack of progress that may be modifiable is poor clinical trial accrual. Surveys of brain tumour patients and neuro-oncology providers suggest that clinicians do a poor job of discussing clinical trials with patients and referring patients for clinical trials.
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