A NEW therapy that shrinks brain tumours could help eradicate the disease, doctors hope.
The first patient taking part in a new clinical trial saw his tumour shrink in half in a matter of weeks.
4
4
4
Around 12,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year – the most common in adults being glioblastoma.
Most patients don’t survive longer than 18 months.
The Wanted’s Tom Parker died of a glioblastoma in 2022, two years after his diagnosis, aged 33, while TV presenter Annabel Giles died aged 64 in November 2023, four months after her diagnosis.
Now scientists at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are trialling a new form of treatment.
It involves injecting low levels of radioactivity directly into glioblastoma brain tumours, to target cancer cells more directly.
Paul Read, a 62-year-old engineer from Luton, is the first patient to take part in the trial.
He was diagnosed after noticing a severe headache that would not shift.
Mr Read was then offered a place on the new CITADEL-123 trial after his tumour, which was first removed surgically in December 2023, returned in July.
Patients have as much of their tumour removed as possible before surgeons implant a small medical device called an Ommaya reservoir under the scalp, which connects to the tumour via a small tube.
The drug ATT001 is then delivered straight to the tumour to avoid any damage to the surrounding brain tissue.
Mr Read said: “I was fully expecting the tumour to return due to its aggressive nature.
“I know the outcome isn’t great and I was happy to explore anything else.
“This trial was a lifeline, as the likelihood of survival according to the data was a year or less for me.
“I am delighted to be given the opportunity to be part of this trial and I have not experienced any side-effects from the injections.
“Possibly a little more tired, but overall, I am feeling very good.
“I’m not frightened by any of this. We are all dealt a hand of cards and you don’t know which ones you are going to get.
The advantage of this treatment is that it is focused and hopefully there will be little toxicity to the rest of the body.
Dr Paul Mulholland
“It will be wonderful if this treatment helps me and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
“I am more than happy – even if it doesn’t benefit me, it may benefit someone else down the line.
“So I have got nothing to lose and everything to hope for.”
Dr Paul Mulholland, a UCLH consultant medical oncologist who designed the trial, said: “So far, in the first patient, their tumour has reduced by 50 per cent in size.
“We’ve just gone through his scan results with him and his end-of-treatment scan shows a reduction in the tumour, which is really quite remarkable for somebody whose tumour is so aggressive.”
Dr Mulholland said the treatment, which is given for four to six weeks, has so far been very straightforward.
He said: “The radioactivity in the drug targets the tumour cells specifically – it’s a tiny amount of radioactivity.
“Because it’s targeted directly to the tumour cells, it’s very powerful at killing them.”
Medics are initially treating 14 patients before recruiting a further 26 patients and combining the drug with immunotherapy, which trains the body’s own immune system to kill cancer.
Dr Mulholland said: “Potentially this is a very powerful approach and I’m already extremely pleased with the results from the first patient.
“It is our aim to find a treatment or a combination of treatments that will cure patients.
“It could also be an ongoing treatment – it could certainly be given for more than six weeks.
“The advantage of this treatment is that it is focused and hopefully there will be little toxicity to the rest of the body.”
Labour MP Dame Siobhain McDonagh, who lost her sister, Baroness Margaret McDonagh, to glioblastoma, is backing the trial and campaigning for 200 glioblastoma patients to enter clinical trials each year.
4
What are the symptoms of glioblastoma and how soon do they show?
Glioblastomas are the most common brain tumour in adults, while also being very aggressive and deadly.
Brain Tumour Research says tumours increase pressure in the skull, causing headaches.
Symptoms to look for are:
- Headaches
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea and vomiting
- Loss of balance
- Mood swings
- Problems speaking
- Problems with memory or concentration
- Seizures
- Impaired vision
The symptoms can initially be quite non-specific, meaning they could be mistaken for lots of other conditions- even stress or a hangover.
The brain controls so many different functions that symptoms can vary greatly depending on where in the brain the tumour is.
Glioblastomas are very fast growing. Once found, experts can see them double within seven weeks.
But, according to Dr Stephen Bagley, assistant professor of medicine at Penn Medicine, the first spark of glioblastoma in the brain remains something of a mystery to medical experts.
One study concluded that a glioblastoma starts growing 330 days on average – almost a year – before a diagnosis.
Another found that there are changes in immune function up to five years before a diagnosis, with markers in blood samples – but symptoms only occur three months prior.
