New Brain Cancer Vaccine Trial To Start In UK

Any news regarding clinical trials anywhere in the world is always welcomed by any brain tumour sufferer or family of one, especially if that person is suffering one of the most aggressive forms i.e. Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM).

Glioblastoma Multiforme is one of the most common types of primary brain tumours and also one of the most aggressive. In the UK, the present time of survival following diagnosis is between 12-18 months, a sentence no one wants to hear!

In the US, this trial has already been undertaken and it has shown to significantly extend the life of the patient, without any toxic side effects, to an average survival time of 3 years. Not much more I hear you say but still progress. Any extra time to do what you want and to be with who you want to be with for that extended period will always be a bonus to me if my quality of life can also be sustained.

A leading Neuro-Oncologist from Kings College Hospital will be undertaking these trials and what they entail is using the patients tumour to develop a personalised vaccine that is then injected into the patients arm. In the case of Glioblastoma Multiforme patients, they usually undergo surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible and then the removed tumour is used to develop the vaccine.

Great news for the UK and for the fight against brain tumours. More research is still required for trials such as this and as we can see from the Brain Tumour UK site, more action is required from parliament as brain tumour research is badly underfunded in the
UK.

For more information on the 'Brain tumour patients and carers join mass lobby of Parliament' story from Brain Tumour UK, visit:

http://www.braintumouruk.org.uk/brain-tumour-patients-and-carers-join-mass-lobby-of-parliament

For more information on the new trials being undertaken by King’s College London, visit:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/news/newsrecords/2012/05May/Brain-Cancer-Vaccine.aspx

Meningioma Brain Tumour - 6 Years On

Today, six years ago, a fabulous neurosurgeon was delving about in my head. He successfully found my brain and removed the intruder camping out on top completely.

Six years on, my head still itches continuously and my hair grows thicker on that side of my head but I have no side effects that I know of that I can put down solely to the removal of my meningioma brain tumour.

LIFE IS GREAT!

Here's to another great year!

Cheers Everyone

Coronation Street's Bill Tarmey's e-Petition

Hi everyone.

Can I please ask that as many of you as possible please sign Bill Tarmey's e-petition.

Brain tumours kill more people under the age of 40 than any other cancer, including more children and life expectancy for people with brain tumours has not increased for 40 years; they are responsible for an average loss of life of over 20 years.

This petition calls on the UK Government to take action to:

Improve brain tumour diagnosis.
Enforce best practice in brain tumour care.
Increase the proportion of cancer research spending on brain tumours.

To make a real difference we need over 100,000 people to sign the e-petition.

Please sign Bill’s e-petition here and spread the word.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/35167

Sophie Needs Help

Hey Friends,

I just got this news from a friend of mine. If you feel the same way that I do about it, then please post about this to your friends too.

There's no doubt this money can be raised, and all you have to do is pass on this request for people to visit the site and consider donating to this poor little girl - thank you.

Lynda

www.justgiving.com/sophierobertsstory

News From A New Study Of Meningioma

The new study suggests that performing frequent X-rays may expose patients to unnecessary risk.

So far, we are told that the biggest known risk for meningioma brain tumours (non-malignant) is exposure of some kind to ionizing radiation of which the most common source is found in dental X-rays.

Now, no one is saying stop going to the dentist but the professionals are suggesting that maybe we have too many unnecessary X-rays as part of our annual check-ups.

Lead researcher and neurosurgeon Elizabeth B. Claus, MD, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital says, " it appears that a large percentage of patients receive annual X-rays instead of every two to three years, which is the recommendation for healthy adults".

This is yet another area where many of us will say, "Hmmm. I had a fair few dental X-rays in my life for one reason or another". So maybe now is time to be cautious. If it's not necessary, why have one? I discussed this with my dentist when several smaller studies were undertaken a few years ago and although she felt the risk was very small, I decided to take the stand that unless it was an emergency then I wasn't having them. The findings of that time were inconclusive but I always feel there is no smoke without fire so decided to leave them out!

This new study, which dealt with a larger group was undertaken between 2006 and 2011 and included at least 1,400 meningioma patients of all ages. It was found that when comparing dental histories between adults of similar characteristics within the group, lifelong exposure to panoramic dental X-rays was significantly associated with the risk of meningioma and interestingly, to me, the risk was shown to be higher in those who received the panoramic X-rays under the age of 10.

The findings were, according to neurosurgeon Elizabeth B. Claus, MD, PhD, that meningioma patients were more than twice as likely as the adults without brain tumours to have had dental X-rays at some point during their lives.

The study appears in the April 10 issue of the American Cancer Association journal Cancer.