E-Mail
BOSTON - It s a real-life plot worthy of a classic spy novel: Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and other Boston-area research centers are turning the tables on glioblastomas, the most devastating and aggressive form of brain cancer, by transforming a type of cell that normally protects tumors and inhibits effective drug therapy into a stone-cold glioblastoma killer.
Glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor, is rapidly fatal: Most patients die within two years of diagnosis despite aggressive therapies such as brain surgery, whole-brain radiation and chemotherapy.
Despite hopes that a class of drugs known as immune checkpoint blockers (ICBs) - drugs that have revolutionized the treatment of patients with malignant melanoma, non-small-cell lung cancer, and other solid tumors - could also benefit patients with glioblastoma, ICBs have not been effective against the disease in clinical trials to date.
By TAPINTO LIVINGSTON STAFF
May 9, 2021 at 2:00 PM
Alan Garten, MD, Interventional Radiologist and Chair of the SBMC Department of Radiology, is elected President of the Saint Barnabas Medical Staff.
Alan Garten, MD, Interventional Radiologist and Chair of the SBMC Department of Radiology, is .
Credits: SBMC
May 9, 2021 at 2:00 PM
LIVINGSTON, NJ The nearly 1,600 attending physicians at Saint Barnabas Medical Center (SBMC) recently elected leaders among the group to serve two-year terms as Medical Staff Officers.
Inducted at the Quarterly Medical Staff Meeting in April were Alan Garten, MD, who will serve as Medical Staff President as well as First Vice President Michael Addis, MD; Second Vice President John Shumko, MD; Secretary Alison Grann, MD; and Treasurer Michael LaSalle, MD.
PET Imaging Adds Valuable Information to Brain Metastasis Monitoring
After radiosurgery concurrent with nivolumab in 59-year-old patient with melanoma BM (patient 1; Supplemental Tables 3 and 5), F-18 FET PET at follow-up 12 weeks after treatment initiation (bottom row) shows significant decrease of metabolic activity (TBRmean, ?28%) compared with baseline (top row), although MRI changes were consistent with progression according to iRANO criteria. Reduction of metabolic activity was associated with stable clinical course over 10 mo. CE = contrast-enhanced. Image created by N. Galldiks et al., Research Center Juelich, Juelich, Germany.
May 5, 2021 For patients with brain metastases, amino acid positron emission tomography (PET) can provide valuable information about the effectiveness of state-of-the-art treatments. When treatment monitoring with contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is unclear, adding 18F-FET PET can help to accurately diagnose recurring brain meta
E-Mail
IMAGE: After radiosurgery concurrent with nivolumab in 59-year-old patient with melanoma BM (patient 1; Supplemental Tables 3 and 5), F-18 FET PET at follow-up 12 weeks after treatment initiation (bottom row). view more
Credit: Image created by N. Galldiks et al., Research Center Juelich, Juelich, Germany.
Reston, VA For patients with brain metastases, amino acid positron emission tomography (PET) can provide valuable information about the effectiveness of state-of-the-art treatments. When treatment monitoring with contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is unclear, adding 18F-FET PET can help to accurately diagnose recurring brain metastases and reliably assess patient response. This research was published in The
Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Review outlines ways to effectively deliver radiotherapy to optimize benefit and minimize risk
A comprehensive review by University of North Carolina researchers and colleagues highlights the optimal ways that focused, high-dose radiation can be delivered to various types of tumors while sparing normal tissue and mitigating long-term side effects. The review was reported as a special issue in the
International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics on May 1, 2021.
This analysis was based on an exhaustive review of data and the literature published largely in the past decade. It updates an earlier review that primarily focused on the effects of conventional radiation therapy on normal tissue. This new review also includes important analyses of how well high-dose radiation can destroy small tumors, such as small brain lesions, lung lesions, and cancers that metastasize to other parts of the body.