Brain Cancer: the Standard Treatment Doesn’t Completely Cure Patients
When we talk about brain cancer, we’re mainly discussing a type called gliomas. Sadly, there hasn’t been much success in fully curing people with these brain tumors.
The usual treatment involves three main things: surgery if it can be done safely, radiation therapy to stop any remaining cancer cells from growing, and chemotherapy. Chemotherapy often uses a drug called Temozolomide or Temodal, which is convenient because it’s taken as a pill for five days every month.
But here’s the problem — this treatment, which is the standard all over the world, doesn’t completely cure patients. It helps slow down the cancer, gives people more time, but it can’t make them completely better.
To really beat brain gliomas, we need a much smarter and more effective approach. In our opinion, we should use different treatments together to fight the cancer in a stronger way.
What I mean is, for example, using oncolytic viruses that can attack and kill the cancer cells, even when they’re not responding to chemotherapy.
These special viruses not only kill the cancer cells but also make the immune system notice them. It’s like making the cancer cells stand out so the immune system can attack them as something foreign.
Another effective method we’re using is called photodynamic therapy. It uses special oxygen molecules that can damage the cancer cells, even the ones that are resistant to drugs.
And on top of all that, there’s immunotherapy. It’s like using different tools, including things like checkpoint inhibitors and other agents, to help the body’s own defenses fight the cancer better.
So, the bottom line is, we believe that to really tackle brain gliomas, we need to use a mix of these smart and powerful treatments. It’s like putting together different pieces of a puzzle to make sure we’re fighting the cancer in the best way possible.