A New Brain cancer Strategy

16 February 2007

Two days a week, Dennis Gibbons has his head shaved and four electrodes pasted to his scalp, part of an experimental treatment in Pittsburgh aimed at destroying the cancer cells in his brain. Gibbons, 56, has glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of brain cancer that is often fatal within a few years of diagnosis. He is the nation's second person to use the battery-operated device as part of a large clinical trial. The trial will test whether the device, the Novo-TTF, can slow the progression of the disease. The device delivers low-intensity, alternating electric fields to the tumor site through the scalp. The fields interfere with the alignment of certain electrically charged structures within cancer cells during the cell-division process, according to NovoCure, the privately held company that produces the device. While preliminary data suggest that tumor growth may be slowed by the electrical treatment, healthy cells are unaffected, company officials said. Patients typically notice only a slight warming of the scalp during the treatment, said Mike Ambrogi, NovoCure's U.S. general manager. He noted that patients are encouraged to wear the device as much as possible. Because good contact with the scalp is required, patients must have their heads shaved every few days and have a new set of electrodes applied.

The device was invented by Dr. Yoram Palti, an Israeli researcher who founded NovoCure. Company officials believe the technology might eventually be used to treat other types of cancer. Glioblastoma multiforme "is the most aggressive primary brain tumor," said Dr. Lara Kunschner, Gibbons' physician and principal investigator for the local study at Allegheny General Hospital's Allegheny Singer Research Institute. It is one of the most common malignant brain tumors in adults, though less common than cancers that have metastasized to the brain from elsewhere in the body. Patients with glioblastoma multiforme usually have surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, followed by radiation, chemotherapy or a combination of both, Kunschner said. Overall, the median survival rate is about one year after diagnosis, she said, though younger people, those with few neurological impairments and those who have virtually all of the tumor surgically removed tend to live longer.

The current study, a Phase III trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration, is being conducted at centers in the United States and in Europe. Plans call for enrolling more than 200 patients by late next year.

Besides Allegheny General, other U.S. centers currently recruiting patients include the University of Illinois at Chicago, which treated the first U.S. patient with the device in the current study; Northwestern University; the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Columbia University Medical Center; the Cleveland Clinic; the University of Virginia Health System and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

So far, Gibbons is the only study patient at Allegheny General using the device. Kunschner said it is too early to tell if it has had a positive effect.

More information is available at www.novocuretrial.com.

In Europa disponibile in Svizzera dal Dr. Roger Stupp colui che ha promosso il protocollo Stupp (Temodal + radioterapia). Contattare Silvia Hofer a Silvia.Hofer@.... Per l’eligibilità guardare il sito novocuretrial.com