Drug Combination Offers Hope for Brain Tumor Patients

Researchers at Duke University's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center are saying that a combination of drugs, one being bevacizumab AKA Avastin and the other a standardized chemotherapy drug, may help patients with a deadly brain tumor - lioblastoma multiforme (GBM) - live longer.

There were 35 participants in the study, all patients who had tumors that had returned after their first treatment. Usually, patients in this class are given from three to six months to live. In the study, the patients were given a combination of bevacizumab and the chemotherapy drug irinotecan. The patients had been treated with standard therapy such as surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy.

At the six-month mark in the study, close to 50% did not have any tumor growth and close to 80% were still alive.

About 75% of those with recurrent GBM who receive the standard therapy have tumor progression at six months and less than 50% are still alive.

They tell the story of one participant in particular whose tumor had returned and who had been told to get his affairs in order. He is still alive a year after he stated the trial.

Bevacizumab belongs to a class of drugs known as anti-angiogenics and has been successful in treating cancers such as colorectal and lung cancers. Anti-angiogenics work by slowing the rapid growth of the blood vessels that feed the tumors and make them grow and spread.

The theory behind why these two drugs work so well together is that each one of them attacks a feature of the tumor differently, with bevacizumab slowing the growth of blood vessels, making the tumor more vulnerable to the chemotherapy

They are planing to do further studies to find the exact mechanism that the drugs use and also to see if they can get similar results with newly diagnosed GBM patients.

There are from 8,000 to 10,000 newly diagnosed GBM patients in the United States each year and GMB's comprise about half of all primary brain tumors and less than 30% are alive a year after being diagnosed. The survival rate at ten years is 2.3%.

Even when the tumors are treated effectively, they return more than 90% of the time.