Hi All

This was posted on the OzBrainTumour list earlier today.

Progress is definitely being made and there are a lot of exciting new
treatments on the horizon.

It is amazing the number of times brain tumours have been in the news
recently - Ted Kennedy, Yves St Laurent, American Idol, Martin Bashir
- to name a few.

Hope everyone is well and making the most of the wintry weather.

Chris
Wellington, NZ

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Hi everyone,

I recently attended the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting
in Chicago representing the International Brain Tumour Alliance
(www.theibta.org) at their booth. I have made a brief summary of the
key points from my point of view.

The link to all of the abstracts discussed or presented is
http://www.asco.org/ASCO/Abstracts+%26+Virtual+Meeting/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_ca\
tegory_abstracts_view&confID=55&subCatID=5

I have put the abstract numbers next to the points mentioned in ( )
if you want to review further.
Many of the new studies are looking at current standard care
(concomitant radiation and temozolomide followed by monthly
temozolomide) plus something else in newly diagnosed lots of work
being done to add something to standard care to see if that helps
prolong time to progression: abstracts (2055, 2077,13008, 2039)

There were a number of single agent drugs being tested in phase II
trials with promising results. Eg Abstracts (2017) and (2018)
A number of vaccines + standard care showing positive results in phase
II study phase II on the way (gbm OS 33.1 months +, in 2nd study
Overall median survival >19.7 months) (2011 and 2042)
Bevacizumab (Avastin) was discussed frequently.
In recurrent tumours:
Avastin trials showing positive results particularly when used in
combination with chemotherapy
Avastin + CPT11 shown to be effective along with a number of other
drugs (2010b) (2021) (2022)
A lot of interest was shown in the area of combining Temodal/Temodar
and Avastin at recurrence and in initial treatment (abs 2074)
A number of discussions held about difficulties for doctors reading
mri's after Avastin use (2085)

Temozolomide (Temodar/Temodal)

varying schedules discussed. (2010) (2078) (2084) (2044 )
A lot of talk was about "rechallenge " using temozolomide . A study
that looked at retreatment (rechallenge) with prolonged temozolomide
schedule after recurrence showed positive results (2078)
MGMT status also mentioned frequently. Debate continues as to how to
use this information (2044)

Anaplastic Astrocytoma
Indication that should be treated separately to GBM as prognosis more
favourable

Radiation and chemo doesn't matter which order same overall survival
and little difference in PFS (LBA2007)
Study on recurrent /refractory aa with positive results moving into
phase 111 (2076)

Access to drugs outside clinical trials. Discussion held about how the
off label use disadvantages patients as number targets for clinical
trials not reached so research cannot progress as quickly.

Pseudo progession discussed widely ?up to 3 months from radiation
considered most likely time for pseudo progression but can occur up to
6 months past radiation may occur in up to 23% of cases (abs 2025) See
IBTA background paper at: http://www.theibta.org/PseudoProgression.pdf

Study shows correlation with GBM and Melanoma's (2082) ?research
looking into the mechanisms behind both

Stem cell research is still in early stages but many institutions
working on it

Acknowledgement: The IBTA is sponsored by a number of companies in the
form of undirected grants. These are acknowledged on the IBTA website
at: http://www.theibta.org/sponsorship.html
kind regards
Sally