Join the 'Brain Tumor' group to help and get support from people like you. How it works

Brain Tumor Blog

Related terms: Brain Cancer, Brain Tumor, metastatic, Cancer, Brain, Intracranial Tumors

Blog (23)

Brain Tumor Vaccine Shows Promise in Early Trial

Posted 17 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, April 17 – A vaccine made from brain cancer patients' own tumor cells led to a nearly 50 percent improvement in survival times for those stricken with glioblastoma multiforme, the same malignancy that claimed the life of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a new study suggests. A phase 2 multicenter trial of about 40 patients with recurrent glioblastoma – an aggressive brain cancer that typically kills patients within 15 months of diagnosis – showed that the vaccine safely increased average survival to nearly 48 weeks, compared with about 33 weeks among patients who didn't receive the treatment. The six-month survival rate was 93 percent for the vaccinated group, compared with 68 percent for 86 other glioblastoma patients, who were treated with other therapies. "We've done a lot of things for this kind of tumor in the last 40 or 50 years, all variations on different chemotherapies ... Read more

Related support groups: Brain Tumor, Glioblastoma Multiforme

Study Suggests Vaccine May Help Kids With Brain Cancer

Posted 3 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, April 3 – A vaccination may help boost the immune system of children with brain tumors, a small new study reports. The prognosis for many children with brain tumors, known as gliomas, is grim. Radiation is the only effective treatment, although there has been hope that a vaccine could boost the immune system's response. The results of the new study, which included 27 children and was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, were released Monday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Chicago. "We've found that the vaccine is tolerated well with limited systemic toxicity, but we've also observed that there are some patients who have immunological responses to the vaccine target in the brain that can cause swelling and transient worsening, and subsequently, some of those children can have very favorable responses," study lead ... Read more

Related support groups: Brain Tumor, Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma, Malignant Glioma

New Technique to Remove Skull Tumors May Mean Less Scarring

Posted 1 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 1 – A new surgical method that uses a natural opening to remove skull base tumors results in fewer complications, less scarring and faster recovery for patients, according to the surgeons who developed the technique. The natural opening used in this type of procedure is located behind the molars, above the jawbone and beneath the cheekbone. Traditional surgeries to remove skull base tumors require incisions through the face and bone removal. These procedures can be disfiguring, cause nerve damage that results in facial paralysis, and require days or weeks of hospitalization and recovery. The new approach developed by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine surgeons was first performed on a patient last year. Surgery time was reduced from six hours to two hours, the patient was discharged from the hospital the next day and had no visible evidence of the surgery. Since ... Read more

Related support groups: Surgery, Brain Tumor

Cancer Patients Should Ask Doctors to Use Simple Terms

Posted 28 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 28 – Cancer patients are often faced with many difficult-to-understand treatment choices that can have serious side effects and even mean the difference between life and death. That's why it's crucial that patients insist doctors use plain language in explaining the options, advised Angela Fagerlin, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a researcher at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. "People are making life and death decisions that may affect their survival and they need to know what they're getting themselves into. Cancer treatments and tests can be serious. Patients need to know what kind of side effects they might experience as a result of the treatment they undergo," Fagerlin said in a university news release. She and her colleagues outlined a number of tips to help patients get the information they need ... Read more

The War on Cancer Continues

Posted 20 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 20 – Forty years after President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act into law and pledged to put the country's resources to work to find better treatments for cancer, substantial victories have been scored against some, but not all, cancers. That's the core finding of a new report, the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2011, released Tuesday by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The National Cancer Act promised more funding for cancer research and prevention. Since then, death rates for many cancers have dropped significantly. From 1990 to 2007, death rates for all cancers combined dropped 22 percent for men and 14 percent for women, resulting in nearly 900,000 fewer deaths during that time, according to the report. Today, more than 68 percent of adults live five years or more after being diagnosed, up from 50 percent in 1975. The five-year survival rate for ... Read more

Scientists May Have Found Missing Link to Common Brain Cancer

Posted 4 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Aug. 4 – A map of the genetic mutations associated with the second most common form of brain cancer appears to reveal the biological cause of the tumors, researchers report. They created the map by sequencing protein-coding genes in seven samples of tissue from oligodendroglioma tumors, and concentrated on recurring mutations in two genes (CIC and FUBP1) not previously associated with those types of tumors. The genes appear to be the missing link in the "two-hit" theory of cancer development, the scientists said. That is, each cell in the body has two copies of 23 chromosomes, representing thousands of genes that produce protein. If one copy is missing, the other copy can make up for the lack of protein. But if the second copy fails, it can become cancerous. For years, scientists have known that the "first hit" in oligodendrogliomas appears in the regions of chromosomes 1 and ... Read more

Related support groups: Brain Tumor, Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma

Heavy Cell Phone Use Might Raise Risk of Brain Tumors

Posted 10 Jun 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, June 10 – The debate over whether or not cell phones might cause brain tumors continues, as a new international study finds a small risk among people who are heavy cell phone users or who have used them for a long time. Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, was not involved with the latest research, but said that "the study is not conclusive that cell phones cause brain tumors." The study shows a correlation between cell phone use and the risk of brain tumors, Brawley said. "But this is a suggestion, it is by no means definitive," he said. Brawley noted there is an ongoing study bombarding the brains of mice with radio frequency radiation to see if brain tumors develop. "If that study is positive, that's going to really tell us that cell phones are not good. If that study is negative, the debate will continue," he said. The latest report was ... Read more

Related support groups: Brain Tumor

Managing Chemoradiation Side Effects May Prolong Survival

Posted 23 Apr 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, April 22 – Brain cancer patients live longer if neurological side effects from chemoradiation can be minimized, a new study says. U.S. researchers analyzed the records of 2,761 patients with high-grade gliomas – the most common primary brain tumor – who were enrolled in 14 Radiation Therapy Oncology Group studies between 1983 and 2003. Patients who didn't experience neurological side effects, such as fatigue and memory loss, during chemoradiation lived an average of four months longer than those who had such effects, said the team at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Chemoradiation involves giving patients chemotherapy and radiation treatments together. Side effects were most likely to occur in patients who were older, frailer, had more symptoms and were receiving radiation twice a day. The researchers said their findings suggest that ... Read more

Related support groups: Brain Tumor, Malignant Glioma

People With Epilepsy More Prone to Brain Tumors: Study

Posted 11 Apr 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, April 8 – People with epileptic seizures are much more likely than others to be diagnosed with a brain tumor, a new study indicates. The findings suggest that epileptic seizures may indicate the presence of a very early-stage tumor or a tumor that hasn't been detected on brain scans, the researchers noted. They looked at data on hospital admissions between 1963 and 2005 and subsequent diagnoses of, or deaths from, brain tumors among those patients. The analysis revealed that people who had a first-ever hospital admission for epileptic seizure were nearly 20 times more likely to develop a brain tumor than people admitted to the hospital for other reasons. Even when the researchers factored in the possibility that brain tumors might have been missed or not recorded in the first year after admission for epilepsy, the risk was still 7.5 to nine times higher for patients with ... Read more

Related support groups: Epilepsy, Brain Tumor

British Study Finds No Link Between Cell Phones, Brain Tumors

Posted 18 Feb 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Feb. 18 – Cell phones do not increase the risk of brain cancer, a new British study contends. An analysis of data on newly diagnosed cases of brain cancer in England between 1998 and 2007 – when cell phone use was climbing – revealed no statistically significant change in the incidence of brain cancers in men or women, said the University of Manchester researchers. There was a very small increase (0.6 more cases per 100,000 people) in the incidence of cancers of the brain's temporal lobe. That works out to 31 extra cases per year in England's population of nearly 52 million people, the researchers said. But the study authors also noted that cancers of the brain's parietal lobe, cerebrum and cerebellum in English men fell slightly during the study period. The study was released online in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Bioelectromagnetics. ... Read more

Related support groups: Brain Tumor

Fewer Cancer Patients May Be Depressed Than Thought

Posted 20 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Jan. 20 – The rate of depression among cancer patients may be lower than previously believed, a new study indicates. An international team of researchers analyzed 94 studies involving more than 14,000 patients and found that about one-sixth of cancer patients suffer depression and about one-third have a more widely defined mood disorder. Only modest rates of depression and anxiety occurred in cancer patients in the first five years after diagnosis, which suggests that depression is not inevitable in these patients, the researchers said. Only when it was combined with other mood disorders was depression common, occurring in 30 percent of hospitalized cancer patients. The study is published online Jan. 19 in The Lancet Oncology. Rates of depression and anxiety were not significantly different between patients receiving palliative care (care designed to ease pain and increase ... Read more

1 in 5 Cancer Survivors Suffers Chronic Pain, Study Finds

Posted 20 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19 – More than 40 percent of cancer survivors experience pain, and the risk is highest among black and female patients, finds a new study. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System surveyed nearly 200 U.S. cancer survivors and found that 43 percent had experienced pain since their diagnosis, and 20 percent suffered chronic cancer-related pain at least two years later. Among white patients, the most significant source of pain was cancer surgery (53.8 percent), and among black patients the greatest source of pain was cancer treatment (46.2 percent), according to the report. In addition, the study found that compared to men, women had more pain, more pain flare-ups, more disability due to pain and were more depressed because of pain. The authors also noted that black patients were more likely to report greater severity of pain and more pain-related ... Read more

Many Brain Tumor Patients Turn to Alternative Therapies

Posted 13 Dec 2010 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Dec. 13 – About 40 percent of patients with incurable brain tumors use alternative therapies in addition to conventional treatments, finds a new study. German researchers asked 621 patients with incurable grade II to grade IV gliomas (tumors) about their use of alternative therapies. Of those who used alternative remedies, 39 percent used homeopathy, 31 percent used vitamin supplements and 29 percent tried psychological therapies. The study also found that younger patients, women and those with higher levels of education were more likely to use alternative therapies than older patients, men and those with less education. Common reasons patients cited for using alternative therapies included building up the body's ability to fight the cancer and being able to do something to help themselves. The study appears in the Dec. 14 print issue of the journal Neurology. "The majority of ... Read more

Related support groups: Brain Tumor

Demand for Radiation Therapy Predicted to Exceed Supply

Posted 21 Oct 2010 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Oct. 21 – Over the next decade, the growth in demand for radiation therapy in the United States will be 10 times greater than the increase in new radiation oncologists, a difference that could affect cancer patients' access to treatment, according to a new study. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of patients requiring radiation therapy will increase 22 percent but the number of full-time radiation oncologists entering the workforce will increase just 2 percent, said researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and colleagues. They based their predictions on projections that this year 3,943 radiation oncologists will treat an estimated 470,000 patients in the United States. The large increase in demand for radiation therapy will be partly due to growing numbers of older adults and minorities, groups in which certain types of cancers are more ... Read more

Cancer Patients' Secondary Symptoms Need Attention: Study

Posted 11 Oct 2010 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Oct. 11 – Many cancer patients with pain or depression also experience physical symptoms, such as fatigue, dry mouth and nausea, that can cause disability, a new study shows. Doctors need to recognize and treat these symptoms in order to improve quality of life for cancer patients, said Dr. Kurt Kroenke, of the Richard Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indiana University, and Regenstrief Institute Inc. in Indianapolis, and colleagues. They analyzed data from 405 cancer patients who had either pain or depression and found that all the patients had at least one of 22 physical symptoms examined in the study. More than half of patients reported 15 of the 22 symptoms. The most common symptoms were fatigue (97.5 percent), difficulty sleeping (about 79 percent), pain in limbs or joints (78 percent), back pain (nearly 75 percent) and memory problems (72 percent). The patients also reported ... Read more

Page: 1 2 Next (23 results)

Ask a Question

Further Information

Related Condition Support Groups

Glioblastoma Multiforme, Pituitary Tumor, Anaplastic Astrocytoma, Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma, Malignant Glioma, Angioblastoma, Cancer

Related Drug Support Groups

methotrexate, cisplatin, Cytoxan, Afinitor, cyclophosphamide, Platinol, Methotrexate LPF Sodium, everolimus, Folex PFS, view more... Platinol-AQ, Zortress, Cytoxan Lyophilized, Neosar, BiCNU, lomustine, Gliadel, carmustine, CeeNU, Trexall