Good news from MRI scan. GBM Tumor shrinkage from 4.5cm to 2cm

Happy New Year everyone. I wanted to give a positive news update as it is great motivation when there only seems to be negative news regarding glioblastoma. My dad had his 3 month MRI scan follow up (since the last scan in September) today and it shows tumor shrinkage from 4.5cm (in addition to swelling) down to 2cm and no swelling. 

What was added since the previous MRI scan (September) was starting these drugs in October:

• 16 mg dexamethasone and then slowly reducing to 2mg now; 
• Biweekly IV Bevacizumab - avastin ; 9 rounds completed; 
• 2g daily Valaciclovir - valtrex (1g in the morning, 1g in the night);
• 100mg daily Artemisinin;
• 500mg daily Astragalus. 

I think the Bevacizumab - avastin and Valaciclovir - valtrex really helped.

I want to share his treatment as I know there is no one cocktail list and it can be difficult to know what to take and also where to get the drugs or supplements. We began by taking the list of "A" drugs from the table which Stephen shared with us after I emailed him directly. Stephen also provided a link to the Ben William's and Richard Gerber's cocktail list. Since my dad is unmethylated we tried to follow Richard Gerber's cocktail list as closely as possible. We printed out the BT Cocktail list Stephen shared with us, modified it to the "A" drugs and printed this as my dads list to show his oncologists and GP with the dosage he was taking. We were lucky some friends were able to get chloroquine phosphate, Celebrex and melatonin over the counter in Spain. This meant we could start slowly adding drugs one by one before getting the GP to prescribe these drugs to my dad. His oncologist was happy for my dad to try whatever he wanted once he did the treatment they suggest - he was free to add any supplements or drugs once we provided the oncologist and GP with the cocktail list, dosage, purpose (this info from the cocktail list Stephen shared) and the date we added the drug and only one by one with two weeks apart. For the likes of Valaciclovir - valtrex we named the researchers who carried out the study and the publication and then our GP was happy to prescribe these drugs from our local pharmacy.

We check his drug interactions using drugs.com website. It allows you to enter the list of drugs and says potential side effects or which drug combinations throughout the day to avoid. We also get the pharmacist to make up weekly blister packs and they put his drugs into morning, lunch, evening and night - this service really helps us keep organise. We keep a day example of how the pharmacist previously made up the blister pack and hand that in to the pharmacist the following month so they remember - as even for the pharmacist its alot in the cocktail to remember.

We are attending 2 hospitals because one is a general hospital to deal with his seizures and it is 10 mins drive away and his oncologist/neurologist hospital are 15 mins away from our house - we are very lucky with the excellent healthcare in Ireland and that it is all provided for (consultation, MRI scans, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, Bevacizumab - Avastin, prescribed cocktail medication, social worker, counselling, hospital stays, blood tests, tumor analysis).

We were taking N-acetylcysteine early on (it is a Glutamate transporter 1 (GLT1)) but we stopped as we read it might enhance the tumor growth - we do not know if it is good or bad to take??? I think the seizure drugs blog glutamate transport?

We also obtained Disulfiram but never added this to our cocktail as we do not know if it interacts with the seizure drugs??

We also were taking Ranitidine (75mg daily) but stopped this after reading about side effects combined with Bevacizumab - avastin. Although my dad never had any issues. 

We are also interested in adding more to the cocktail perhaps similar to the CUSP9rv3 clinical trial cocktail such as ritonavir. We are also continuing to do research on HAART/HIV antriviral treatment as apparently HIV patients in Brazil/Mexico did not get GBM's over a 20 year period. 

My dad needed to take Duclox for constipation during chemo but is fine now.

My dad does not follow a ketogenic diet but we do encourage him to have a vegan diet as much as possible low in sugar. However if he wants to eat biscuits, bread, chocolate etc he does - he loves Latte's and dark mint chocolate. He does not have any alcohol due to the seizure medication.

BACKGROUND:

• My father was diagnosed with Grade 4 GBM after a grand mal seizure 24th Feb 2019. Located in the left temporal lobe, around 3cm.
• He had a successful craniotomy on the 7th of March 2019. About 95% removed, at least all visible tumor was removed.
• He completed the 30 sessions of radiation/310mg TMZ. 17th April 2019 to 30th May 2019
• He then did 3 months of 5/23 400mg TMZ chemo. July-September 
• TMZ was stopped and been doing Avastin every 2nd Monday since 23rd September 2019 - today 13th January 2020 still doing.
• Some notes to point out: he was swimming the evening before he had his 1st seizure. He couldn't finish a pint of guinness that night and had some pins and needles in his right arm before sleep - he had no other symptoms to indicate this tumor before 24th February 2019. He had the seizure in the middle of the night. 7th March Surgery went really well and was chatting away normally 1 hour afterwards. To this day he has never had any pain or headaches. He had no side effects during radiation and chemotherapy apart from the seizure 5 weeks after it finished. 

Side Effects:

• 30th June 2019: About 5 weeks after 30 sessions radiation/chemo and after having daily tingling, we spent the day walking around the countryside for many hours. We had a 2 hour car journey and he was 2 hours late taking his Keppra (at the time he was only on 1g total in the day, 500mg morning and 500mg evening). That night he had 4 multiple seizures. He came through after the 1st seizure but he seemed to have panicked when he saw the paramedics that he went into the 3 other multiple seizures. The hospital induced him into a coma for 24 hours which we were not expecting. His Keppra dosage was increased to 2.5g a day and they added phenytoin 300mg in the morning. They also restarted him in dexamethasone 2 weeks 4mg and then 2 weeks 2mg.
• 4th September 2019: He had been having foot twitching since 30th June every night when sleeping. From the end of August he was starting to mix up people's names and words due to aphasia resulting from the edema. Hospital increased the Keppra to 3g per day, added Clobazam 10mg x 2 and 16mg Dexamethasone daily - which we have been reducing since September until now (18th Jan) where he is on 2mg Dexamethasone. His speech has now returned to 100% and no seizures  after adding Phenytoin, Clobazam. There was alot of swelling/looked like the tumor was very active by MRI and due to MGMT unmethylation the hospital stopped the TMZ and have now been giving him Bevacizumab - Avastin on Mondays every 2 weeks, 9 rounds so far.  Bloods are all normal and within range.
• October 2019: My dad took Zovirax tablets and then switched to Valtrex as it apparently has better bioavailability. For 2 weeks when he started taking this we noticed he broke out in large cystic type spots around his face and neck - it almost looked like his body was trying to get rid of toxins??? These spots went away after about 2 weeks after starting the Acyclovir treatment.

Daily Routine: He carries around Midazolam injections in case he was ever to have a seizure

MORNING:

1. 8.30am: Ensomeprazole 40mg (One tablet a day). Stomach protector for steroid

After Porridge (with seeds):
9am: Following medication all prescribed by GP 

1. Dexamethasone 2mg (One tablet a day). Steroid to reduce swelling
2. Ramipril 5 mg (One tablet per day). ACE inhibitor, Lower Blood Pressure, Prevents accumulation of Tumor associated Macrophages) 
3. Phenytoin - Epanutin 300 mg - (3 x 100 mg tablets all taken at this time. Anti-seizure
4. Clobasam - Frisium 10 mg (twice a day, 10 mg in morning, 10 mg at night) Anti-seizure
5. Levetiracetam - Keppra 500mg x 3 (twice a day, 1.5g in morning, 1.5g at night) Anti-seizure
6. Metformin Hydrochloride 500 mg (twice a day, 500mg in morning, 500mg at night). Diabetes and Immune booster
7. Valaciclovir - Valtrex 500mg x 2 (twice a day, 1g in morning, 1g at night) Anti-viral, HSV, VZV, EBV, CMV. Guanosine binds to cancer cell DNA and converted by viral thymidine kinase and host cell kinases to aciclovir triphosphate (ACV-TP)
8. Chloroquine phosphate - Avloclor 250 mg. (One tablet per day, 155mg active chloroquine base). Malaria. Inhibition of late-stage autophagy
9. Minocyline 100 mg (twice a day, 100mg morning, 100mg evening - one month on and switch one month off to use Mebendazole instead). Targets macrophage/microglia. Anti-seizure
10. Mebendazole Vermox 100 mg (twice a day, 100mg morning, 100mg evening - one month on and switch one month off to use Minocycline instead). 

After omelette (with garlic):

10.00am: Supplements. Mainly obtained from iherb apart from Turkey tail which is difficult to get in Ireland and we get via evitamins.

1. Boswellia NOW 500mg tablet. (1 of 3 tablets per day) Reduces edema
2. ECG (green tea extract) . Now 400 mg. Sensitizer to TMZ by GRP78 inhibition
3. Maitake D Mushroom Wisdom (600 mg tablets – 1 tablet per day). Immune
4. Curcumin. Doctor's Best (1000mg tablets – 1 tablet once per day but give other brands of Curcumin later in the day as this is not Longvida and difficult to swallow) Immune; STAT3 inhibitor
5. Multivitamins. Optimum Nutrition, Opti-Men. (1 tablet once per day)
6. Vitamin D3.  NOW (10,000 IU tablets – 1 tablet once per day). Cell differentiation; Immune
7. Mushroom supplement mix from Fungi Perfecti Host Defense Stamets 7 (Royal Sun Blazei; Cordyceps; lions mane; Maitake; reishi; Chaga; Mesima); Immune
8. Artemisinin. Doctor's Best (100mg tablets – 1 tablet once per day) Malaria and Direct Cytotoxicity, apoptosis

LUNCH:

After snack:

1pm: Medication prescribed by GP 

1. Celecoxib - Celebrex (200mg tablet) Arthritis and COX-2 inhibitor, Immune (PGE2 inhibition),  reduces edema

1pm Supplements:

1. Astragalus NOW (500mg tablet) Immune

TEA: (meal followed by a glass of Kombucha or Kefir)
After snack:

5pm:

1. Omega 3-6-9  Now Foods, 1200 mg - 1 tablet per day) From Borage, Flax Seed & Fish Oils Increased oxidative stress in tumor cells
2. Milk Thistle, Silymarin Now Foods, (300 mg tablet) Immune and liver support
3. Berberine Natural Factors, WellBetX (500 mg tablet).Glucose metabolism and Induces senescence of  cells by down regulating the EGFR-MEK-ERK signalling pathway
4. Boswellia NOW 500mg tablet. (2 of 3 tablets per day) Reduces edema
5. Curcumin. Protocol for Life Balance, Curcumin SLCP Longvida 400 mg and  Advanced Orthomolecular Research (AOR) Curcuviva 400 mg (80 mg curcuminoids and Nordic Naturals Curcumin Gummies Mango 200mg Longvida. Prefers the Nordic Naturals gummies. Immune; STAT3 inhibitor

EVENING:

9pm: Medication prescribed by GP 

1. Clobasam - Frisium 10 mg (twice a day, 10 mg in morning, 10 mg at night) Anti-seizure
2. Levetiracetam - Keppra 500mg x 3 (twice a day, 1.5g in morning, 1.5g at night) Anti-seizure
3. Metformin Hydrochloride 500 mg (twice a day, 500mg in morning, 500mg at night). Diabetes and Immune booster
4. Valaciclovir - Valtrex 500mg x 2 (twice a day, 1g in morning, 1g at night) Anti-viral, HSV, VZV, EBV, CMV. Guanosine binds to cancer cell DNA and converted by viral thymidine kinase and host cell kinases to aciclovir triphosphate (ACV-TP)
5. Atorvastatin 20 mg (1 tablet a day) Manage Cholesterol
6. Minocyline 100 mg (twice a day, 100mg morning, 100mg evening - one month on and switch one month off to use Mebendazole instead). Targets macrophage/microglia. Anti-seizure
7. Mebendazole Vermox 100 mg (twice a day, 100mg morning, 100mg evening - one month on and switch one month off to use Minocycline instead). 

9pm Supplements:

1. Resveratrol Now Foods, 200 mg,
2. Soy Isoflavones with Vitamin B6. Holland and Barrett Contains active daidzin, genistin and other isoflavones, phyto-oestrogens
3. PSK or PSP (Turkey Tail Mushroom/Corilus versicolor/Trametes versicolor) NFH Hot-Water extract Immune 500mg (obtained from Walmart) have backup from evitamins from Mushroom Wisdom. 
4. Probiotics; Garden of Life, Dr. Formulated Probiotics, Mood+ ( 1 tablet once per day); 16 strains  50 Billion CFU¹ (203 mg)
5. Boswellia NOW 500mg tablet. (3 of 3 tablets per day) Reduces edema
6. Spirulina powder mixed in with green juice

NIGHT:

11pm: Medication prescribed by GP

1. Melatonin 20mg; 

Useful links we used:

Ben William's cocktail: https://btcocktails.blogspot.com/2015/08/ben-williams-cocktail-profile.html

Richard Gerber's MGMT unmethylated cocktail: https://btcocktails.blogspot.com/2015/10/rich-cocktail.html

CUSP9rv3 Cocktail list (Neurology consultant DR. Marc-Eric Halatsch) https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02770378

Positive correlation between HIV antiviral treatment and low occurrence of glioblastoma https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266011045_Gliomas_and_brain_lymphomas_in_HIV-1AIDS_patients_reflections_from_a_20-year_follow_up_in_Mexico_and_Brazil

https://virtualtrials.com/survive.cfm

https://virtualtrials.com/noteworth.cfm

http://www.anticanceralliance.com/cusp-nd/

https://www.survivingterminalcancer.com/

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02770378

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2018.00218/full

https://www.canceractive.com/article/repurposing-old-off-patent-drugs-as-new-and-effective-cancer-treatments

Inhibitors of autophagy

Given the increasing role of inhibitors of autophagy, I would like to discuss the choice of an inhibitor of autophagy, as well as the possibility of enhancing their effect.
___________________________________

This study focuses on the comparison of some of these inhibitors:
2015 http://thejns.org/doi/10.3171/2014.12.FOCUS14748
"...the authors of this study set out to investigate whether chloroquine (CQ) analogs, in particular clinically established antimalaria drugs, would also be able to exert antitumor properties, with a specific focus on glioma cells.
...the authors treated different glioma cell lines with quinine (QN), quinacrine (QNX), mefloquine (MFQ), and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and investigated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress–induced cell death, autophagy, and cell death.
All agents blocked cellular autophagy and exerted cytotoxic effects on drug-sensitive and drug-resistant glioma cells with varying degrees of potency (QNX > MFQ > HCQ > CQ > QN)."

Thus, it follows from the study that cloroquine (CQ) shows a weak effect, even lower, that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) (?!) Maybe this explains the choice of hydroxychloroquine instead of chloroquine in some tests?

And another quotes from the study:

"Cytotoxicity of QBAs for Glioma Cells:
To determine whether other quinoline-based antimalarial (QBA) compounds could mimic the cytotoxic effects of CQ in glioma cells, we used MFQ and QNX. Results showed that these drugs effectively killed U251 cells at much lower concentrations than CQ."

Blocking Autophagy and Inducing Apoptosis in Glioma Cells:
Based on information that CQ induces apoptosis by blocking autophagy, we analyzed whether the other QBA compounds can function in a similar manner.
Quinacrine, the most potent QBA, not only blocked autophagy, but at 20 μM it completely disrupted U251 cellular functioning, which was evidenced by a high level of PARP cleavage, as well as the absence of CHOP/GADD-153 and LC3B expression.

In Vivo Antitumor Activity:
The TUNEL assay for apoptosis demonstrated a significant increase in the number of TUNEL-positive cells in QNX- and QN-> MFQ-> CQ-treated tumors, as compared with untreated controls."

There are also many reports of another inhibitor of autophagy - 3-methyladenine (3-MA).

___________________________________

Since many people here take chloroquine, I would like to discuss the possibility of enhancing its effect. While I see there are the following options:

chloroquine + cimetidine
"Cimetidine pre-treatment caused a 53% decrease in the clearance rate of chloroquine, and a 49% increase in the elimination half-life. Cimetidine inhibited the conversion of chloroquine to monodesethylchloroquine in terms of reductions in the AUC, Cmax, and urinary excretion of monodesethylchloroquine. The serum Cmax of chloroquine was increased by approximately 30% in the cimetidine pre-treated group."
The downside is that since there are many medicines in the cocktail, numerous unpredictable interactions with cimetidine are possible.

increase in the dose of Chloroquine
Instead of using cimetidine, can it be easier to increase the dose of Chloroquine? The standard is 250 mg / day.

chloroquine + hypoxia-inducing agents
2017 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28797031
"This work shows that inhibition of autophagy is a promising strategy against GBM and identifies ATG9 as a novel target in hypoxia-induced autophagy. Combination with hypoxia-inducing agents may provide benefit by allowing to decrease the effective dose of autophagy inhibitors."
What hypoxia-inducing agents are they talking about?
___________________________________

I also found several preliminary studies on the synergy of chloroquine and other drugs. It is interesting to study more ..

Dihydroartemisinin + Сhloroquine
2017 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29033794
Dihydroartemisinin Exerts Anti-Tumor Activity by Inducing Mitochondrion and Endoplasmic Reticulum Apoptosis and Autophagic Cell Death in Human Glioblastoma Cells.
"Co-treatment with chloroquine (CQ) significantly induced the above effects. Furthermore, ER stress and mitochondrial dysfunction were involved in the dihydroartemisinin-induced autophagy."

Asparaginase + Сhloroquine
2017 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29207624
"combination treatment with autophagy inhibitor CQ significantly enhanced anti-glioblastoma efficacy of asparaginase in U87MG cell xenograft model."

Sorafenib + Сhloroquine 
2016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26971793
"we combined sorafenib treatment in GBM cells (U373 and LN229) and tumors with the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine. We found that blockage of autophagy further inhibited cell proliferation and migration and induced cell apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. These findings suggest the possibility of combination treatment with sorafenib and autophagy inhibitors for GBM."

Kudos and Hindsight's 20/20 Thoughts

I lost my dear husband after 32 years of marriage to a GBM that his colleagues at MD Anderson recognized as so genetically virulent, they did not give him more than a few months, at most, after diagnosis.  I will never forget sitting in a room, surrounded by the large group of oncologists who were his close friends, waiting on the results and then seeing them cry as his case was discussed.

Against their wishes, we started him on a course of supplements to accompany the chemo and radiation.  It included pycnogenol, cannabis oil, curcumin, Leukozepin, Vit. D, turkey tail mushrooms, boswellia, artemisinin, and more, plus organic smoothies.  He had 2-3 acupuncture treatments per week.  It caused an uproar.  He was a traitor to modern science.  Every consult was a battle.  Didn't we realize that free radicals were our FRIENDS?? And we would answer back our retort, and they would argue back theirs.  It was awful...the whole experience was a nightmare because he dared to think outside the box and at MD Anderson's Dept. of Neuro-oncology, that is a sin.  There were times the pressure was so great, he actually stopped the supplements for awhile, or stopped some of them.  And did it help?  No.  The tumor took advantage of the "rest" it got and grew even faster.  So he'd go back on them, having lost ground.

He was even ok'd for a clinical trial as n-of-1, with the supplements having been ok'd by the principal investigator, but the head of the NO department said that no one would go on any trial in his department as long as the patient took supplements, not even a pre-approved n-of-1.  The fact that my husband had been a researcher "in the family" for 30 years, who had done his due diligence, and made the decision to go forward, meant nothing.  And as the department head made this proclamation, he smiled a Mona Lisa smile that said, "It doesn't matter, you know, you are going to die before long anyway."

It is something I will never forgive.

My husband lived almost a year after his diagnosis, to the surprise of all who knew his profile.  And in the last few months, I have relived every decision we made along the way.  May I share my hindsight with you?  Who knows, it might help someone.

1.  First of all, kudos to Stephen and the rest of you, for asking so many questions and thinking of novels ways to attack this monster.  If the NOs won't think outside the box for all of the insurance/funding/politics/training/messy-science/too-many-variables reasons, then we are on our own.  Keep it up.  This is a glioblastoma...time for a new paradigm, folks.

2.  If we had to do it all over again, he'd have gone through the resection, but not the radiation.  The only thing the radiation did was to make the beast bigger.  Yes, it was floppy and full of holes.  But it was MGMT-promoter gene unmethylated.  That radiation + Temodar just kicked it in the shins a little.  When that -blastoma beast regained its strength and got back to the business of evolving, it handily filled in those holes and started to grow again with newer, more efficient angiogenic pathways, but now starting from the larger border!  And with each new chemo agent, it created another new angiogenic pathway that was even better than the one before.  In what universe is this a good idea?

3.  We would have started him on all of his supplements, immediately after the resection, especially cannabis.  You can get it, you just have to try.  Go to the Facebook GBM cannabis blog and put it out there...hey!  I'm in an illegal state!  Help me, please??? and you will be helped.  But get someone to tell you how to dose it.  We were conservative Repubs at the time and didn't know the first thing about CO.  We finally consulted, via FaceTime, with Eloise at Green Health Consultants and she did her best but it was too little too late.

4.  Start on Optune when the tumor is small, not when it is really big like we did.  In Houston, you will have to go to Methodist Hospital to do this.  Husband's new NO, Dr. Ivo Tremont-Lukats, was trained at MD Anderson and is willing to let you use whatever supplements you want.  He's a gem.

5.  Because Husband's tumor's MGMT-promoter gene was unmethylated, we would have gotten him on disulfiram asap, to take along with the Temodar.  I did get some on the black market about mid-way through but it arrived two years out of date.  Dr. Tremont was willing to let my husband have a Hail-Mary trial of it toward the end, but by then the tumor had covered most of his brain and was creeping down his spine.  Like I said, it was especially virulent.  Had his NO at MD Anderson been willing to write a legitimate RX for it after the resection, when that puppy was the size of a peanut, I really think my husband might've had a chance to stop, or at least slow down, its regrowth.  And every time he took Temodar after that, he would have needed to take the disulfiram at the same time.  That, along with the carpet bomb effect of the supplements and Optune, would have given him better odds than what we were dealt at MD Anderson, I'm convinced.

That's it.  That's all I have to offer.  My rage at the medical establishment is something I will be working on for a long time.  I have a couple wonderful of "forgiveness" counselors who are helping me with this via phone sessions and I am slowly getting better, I think.

Best of luck to you and may our Lord bless you and keep you in His hands.

Toxicity of DCA + artesunate combination in a GBM patient

A new case report describes a toxic and eventually fatal reaction following DCA + injected artesunate in a GBM patient.  Hematological and liver toxicity began 6 days after DCA + artesunate combination treatment.

"An unknown amount of DCA was administered and ART (2.5 mg/kg bodyweight) was intravenously infused 148 days after surgery".

Note that artesunate was removed from the CUSP9 protocol due to toxicities.  Probably best to avoid the DCA + artesunate/artemisinins combination.  Has anyone been taking this combination now or previously?

journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2016.00204/pdf

Artemisinin Revisited

Overview
I'd like to revisit the use of artemisinin and other natural compounds to add to the standard-of-care medicines and radiotherapy currently used in the fight against brain tumors.  So far, we've had limited but hopeful results.  Has anyone else had success with artemisinin or its derivatives? 

Our story
My husband, aged 61, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma-grade IV in April 2016.  The discovery of a mass in his left parietal lobe, accompanied by so much swelling was quite a shock, since he was such a productive person up to that point.  He rode his bike to work daily, went on lecture tours (he's a medical researcher, ironically), wrote endless grant proposals, played classical guitar, etc.  The only thing we could point to as being an issue was mild aphasia for about two years, which we had blamed on stress and insomnia.

He had 92% of the tumor removed at the end of April.  Three weeks later, the tumor had started to regrow to the point where they wanted to begin Temozolomide + radiation immediately.  He completed a 6-week regimen of both, taken concurrently, and with Chinese herbals (artemisinin, curcumin, and leukozepin) added during the last week.  Three weeks later, his scan showed a beaten-up, "leaky" tumor, that was about 50% larger - a combination of true tumor growth and inflammation.  Also noted on his path report:  "Exophytic growth towards splenium of corpus callosum and occipital lobe has progressed."

For those of you who are knowledgeable about genetic markers, he has the MDM4, PTEN, and TP53 mutations.  His IDH1 and IDH2 are wild type.  His MGMT promoter gene is 97% unmethylated, unfortunately.

I brought this abstract (link attached) to the last consult and gave it to his oncologist:  Artesunate enhances the antiproliferative effect of temozolomide on U87MG and A172 glioblastoma cell lines.  His oncologist was happy enough with this scan result that he let Husband continue on the artemisinin and temozolomide for Round 2, which will be higher doses of both but for only 5 days.  After that, another scan will be taken after letting the inflammation clear out, on August 29th.  We'll get the results on August 31st.

If you have any experience/information that you could share on combining artemisinin, artesunate, etc with traditional GBM meds, including immunotherapy, I would be so grateful to hear from you! - ABM

Slowing down glioblastoma progression in mice by running or the anti-malarial drug dihydroartemisinin?

This new study from Heidelberg (Wick et al.)  is the first orthotopic mouse GBM study I've seen with dihydroartemisinin (the main metabolite of the artemisinin compounds), although this was injected rather than give orally to the mice.

Also this is the first study I've seen showing exercise can improve the therapeutic effect of temozolomide.

Click here to view the study

Artusunate and CMV

Stephen

Do you have any information on the results from this study?  https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00284687.  The study looked at the affect artusunate had on CMV.  The CUSP 9 paper mentioned Artusunate was effective against CMV.  If this is indeed correct, then it might be a far less expensive approach to CMV than valcyte.

Mike

Artemisin

Hello!

I didn't see a topic about artemisin yet, so I am opening one.

On the following link is a journal regarding antitumor acitivty or artemisin:
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2012/247597/

It is fairly long, I will just copy paste some parts:

"Artemisinin and its analogs are naturally occurring antimalarials which have shown potent anticancer activity. In primary cancer cultures and cell lines, their antitumor actions were by inhibiting cancer proliferation, metastasis, and angiogenesis. In xenograft models, exposure to artemisinins substantially reduces tumor volume and progression.

One major obstacle for a successful anticancer therapy is the development of resistance over time. Many aggressive tumors become refractory to anticancer therapy with hardly any chemotherapeutic alternatives. A leading cause of drug resistance is the drug efflux generated by overexpression of membrane protein pumps, which results in ineffective low drug concentrations [108]. Anticancer activity of artemisinins has shown to be unaffected in otherwise resistant and multiresistant cancer cells"

I came across artemisin when friend's grandfather got me a tea from artemisia annua ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_annua ), he also said I should take iron supplement when I drink it - folk's medicine like Stephen calls it :)

"In most of the systems, preloading of cancer cells with iron or iron-saturated holotransferrin (diferric transferrin) triggers artemisinin cytotoxicity [32–35] with an increase in artemisinin activity up to 100-fold in some cell lines [36].

Continued proliferation and growth of malignant cells require higher iron metabolism to achieve processes of cell survival [35].  Therefore, cancer cells exhibit an increase in transferrin receptors (TfR) which are responsible for the iron uptake and regulation of intracellular concentrations. Levels of expression of TfR in cancer cells may vary depending on the cell line. However, they differ substantially from normal cells leading to a high selectivity index of artemisinin and its derivatives. Efferth et al. reported that leukemia (CCRF-CEM) and astrocytoma (U373) cells express TfR in 95% and 43% of the cell population, whereas normal monocytes only account for approximately 1% [42, 43]. "

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge on artemisin?

cusp 9 protocol,

Hi all, 1....artesunate 50 mg p.o. twice daily 2....aprepitant 80 mg p.o. twice daily 3....sertraline 50 mg p.o. twice daily 4....captopril 50 mg p.o. twice daily 5....auranofin 3 mg p.o. twice daily 6....nelfinavir 1250 mg p.o. twice daily 7....temozolomide 25 mg/M 2 p.o. twice daily 8....disulfiram 250 mg p.o. twice daily 9....copper (cupric) gluconate 2 mg p.o. twice daily 10...ketoconazole 200 mg p.o. twice daily This was the original CUSP9 version (2013). They are now on version 3. ritonavir replaces nelfinavir celecoxib is in, copper gluconate is out itraconazole replaces ketoconazole minocycline is in, artesunate is out The third CUSP9 paper should be published fairly soon. Stephen, we could use this info? Melinda.

Artesunate

Hi,

does anyone know how to best get hold of artesunate? And is it only available as an infusion, or also as tablets?

I have come across this website: http://www.hepalin.com/ but would like to know if there are also other providers of this drug.

Best,

Lars