Butyrate

Does anyone have information on butyrate and cancer?  Specifically gliomas?  I have not added this to the artemether I have given Jeremy, but professor Singh strongly recommends butyrate be taken with artemisinin and its analogs.

Valcyte and chemo

I have a question for those who took a chance and tried Valcyte for the cmv virus.  Did toy start during chemo? What were your symptoms ?

Some pharmacy with Disulfiram

I saw on another site that people buy Disulfiram in this pharmacy supposedly without prescription. I don't know if it is a good pharmacy or not.
https://www.riverpharmacy.ca/drug/disulfiram

Longvida study

Here's a new human study with Longvida curcumin (400 mg daily of the formula amounting to ~ 80 mg curcumin content) showing improvements in mood and memory. I've already uploaded to the Library (Quality of Life folder).

Abstract

This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, which was nominated for a University Research of the Year award.

Antipsychotics for glioblastoma?

http://www.empr.com/news/antipsychotics-a-new-hope-against-glioblastoma/article/339615/

Scutellaria in vivo

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3901059/

Moringa oleifera some tree

Moringa oleifera some tree but I'm not sure if would be of any help for brain tumors.

How about sea cucumber

Some article about sea cucumber
http://naturalsociety.com/sea-cucumber-shrinks-cancer-cells-95-percent/

How about Modified Citrus Pectin

How about Modified Citrus Pectin. Would it get to the brain?

Tamoxifen + TMZ + Avastin

i am taking a metronomic dose of TMZ (80 mg per day) and get Avastin every two weeks.
I have recently added Tamoxifen (currently 20 mg bid, will be increasing to 30 bid tomorrow)
Is it ok to take those three together?
Thank you

MRI results... we have shrinkage (!)

Hi - !
Today marks 3 weeks post chemo/radiation and our first post treatment MRI.  The tumor perimeter was visibly smaller.  The NO took a measure of the 9/17 MRI which was 49 (mm? cm?) and then took a measure of today which was 40 of the same measurement.  He also commented that the tumor center looked like it was dying.  I'm not sure how he could tell but my mom is an RN and said she could tell too.  The NO believes this all to be the work of the Avastin - which we have had 2 doses of to date.  When I asked if the Temodar or radiation were also helping he said that it was clear to him that this was the work of Avastin.  I still don't fully understand why he concluded that other than experience.  So now he wants us to stop Temodar (or rather not re-start Temodar) and just keep the Avastin.  Is this wise?  I feel really uneasy about that.  The reason being - Dad is feeling crappy and the NO believes the Temodar exacerbates his symptoms through extreme fatigue, poor appetite, body pain (Dad is in a wheel chair or seated all day - body cramps up).  That's really it.  I thought Dad tolerated the Temodar fairly well (no nausea).  What do you guys think?  Should we stop Temodar?  Dad will keep taking it if it is indeed helping.

Thanks -
Annie

Metformin and autophagy

Steven

I was doing a bit of information gathering on AMPK activators, of which metformin is one, and came across information that  metformin is an mTOR inhibitor and and autophagy inducer.  The autophagy inducer information I found interesting.  Any idea how potent this action is and whether it mitigates autophagy inhibition by chloroquine?

Melatonin in UK without prescription

It is easy to get melatonin without prescription in US but this is so funny in UK they can't sell it as melatonin so they sell it as "natural hormon" ...so funny . I like that pharmacy
https://www.doctorfox.co.uk/jet-lag/melatonin.html#prices

Which mutations to test for?

Hello guys!

I have surgery of my low grade glioma scheduled in less than 2 weeks, but the neurosurgeon told me they don't test for many mutations/markers unless I specifically ask them to.

At the moment I know of:

-IDH1/IDH2
-1p/19q
-MGMT methylation
-EGFR vIII

Is there any other mutation/marker I should ask them to test?

Your help is greatly appreciated,
Matjaz

Fistula post Surgery

Hi, anyone faced a fistula after surgery? Almost one month after her surgery, she started to drain some CSL for a tiny hole in the scar. We were really scared, but NS then explained us that is something that often happen, but is manageable. She is taken now acetazolamide lo decrease CSF production, glue for skin, sticky strips and pressure bandage.

Synthoms she had:

• Fever.
• Headache when moving.

Thanks for your comments.

Metronomic TMZ

Hi, just posting this in order to know if someone else is on Metronomic TMZ too. My wife has started 2 weeks ago with this protocol (50mg/m2) also concurrent with Avastin 15 mg/Kg/21d. Since the first infusion she got improvements on her left side, she has to deal with some level of hemiparesia after surgery on Oct-19

Would like to know if someone else is experiencing fatigue, tiredness or lack energy  due to the accumulation of TMZ in this schedule, or maybe the window between Avastin's infusions is too big (21d) and she is not able to keep a stable level in blood and the effect goes off after 10/14 days.

Thanks,
Francisco.

Bladder infection while on the cocktail

My brother has a bladder infection and the doctor is recommending cephalosporine before the next round of chemo. Should we stop all the cocktail drugs to take that drug. Anybody knows if there would be any interactions with all the drugs? And some of them stay in the system long.

2015 abstracts from Society for Neuro-Oncology conference

The 2015 abstracts have been published.  I will use this post to summarize the most interesting abstracts, and will continue updating it as I read through them.

ATPS-59. IMPROVING EFFICACY OF BEVACIZUMAB
TREATMENT IN GLIOBLASTOMA BY TARGETING HIF1 ALPHA

 "GBM spheroids were implanted orthotopically in nude rats...

 Our results show that CBD treatment down-regulates HIF 1 alpha under hypoxic conditions in vitro and in vivo. Combination treatment with CBD and bevacizumab decreases tumor growth and intratumoral hypoxia in clinically relevant human GBM xenograft models."

CBD of course refers to cannabidiol, derived from the cannabis plant.  Bevacizumab is the generic name for Avastin.

ATPS-83. REPURPOSING MEBENDAZOLE AS A REPLACEMENT
FOR VINCRISTINE FOR THE TREATMENT OF BRAIN TUMORS

"We also have compared the therapeutic efficacies of mebendazole and vincristine against GL261 orthotopic [mouse glioma] tumors at their respective maximum tolerated doses (respectively 100 mg/kg/day and 1 mg/kg/week). We found that mebendazole showed a 61% increase in animal survival time, whereas vincristine failed to show any efficacy.However,we did observe significant neuropathy (as measured by sensory allodynia) induced by mebendazole treatment, similar to that caused by vincristine."


IMPS-44. S100B INHIBITION WITH DULOXETINE, A SEROTONIN-NOREPINEPHRINE REUPTAKE INHIBITOR, ALTERS MACROPHAGE POLARIZATION AND ABROGATES GLIOMA GROWTH IN MICE

"In vivo, duloxetine inhibited S100B production, altered polarization and trafficking of macrophages and abrogated the growth of intracranial GL261 gliomas." 

ATPS-13. AROMATASE EXPRESSION IN HIGH GRADE GLIOMAS: A POTENTIAL NEW TARGET FOR THERAPY

"HGGs (N = 35) had markedly higher aromatase expression (>50%) relative to LGGs (N = 19). It is important to note that all the GBMs (N = 21) showed high CYP19A1 [aromatase] expression, whereas the normal tissues and meningiomas had negligible expression. Secondly, letrozole, a widely used aromatase inhibitor in the treatment of ER+ breast tumors in post-menopausal women exhibited excellent brain and brain tumoral penetration and anti-tumor efficacy (assessed using mPET/CT) in rats orthotopically implanted C6 malignant glioma cells. Furthermore, glioma-bearing rats (N =10) treated with letrozole (4 mg/Kg;i.p.injections) had long term suppression with overall survival exceeding 65 days and no signs of overt toxicity. In contrast, control untreated rats (N = 6, 2ml/kg vehicle i.p. injections) developed significant morbidity/mortality in 15-20 days. Overall, our studies strongly suggest that aromatase is a new “druggable target” for treatment of HGGs and that letrozole can potentially be readily used for this purpose."

Why does Avastin disqualify from many clinical trials?

I feel like I knew the reason at one point in time but it seems to have been removed from my brain. We held out on Avastin as long as we could but now that my mom has started (1st infustion 11/3/15 2nd infusion 11/17/15) I'm curious why this will exclude her from many clinical trials.

Avastin use would have eliminated her from participating in the Toca 511 Trial (virus injected directly into tumor cavity after tumor was removed) she was/is part of at UCLA in May 2015. However, her recurrence by November 2015 with multiple new lesions made turning to Avastin pretty much a no-brainer as options are running out.

There are a number of trials that are ok with prior or current Avastin use but many of the ones that sound promising require no prior Avastin use. Why is this?

Avastin inhibits growth of the blood vessels that feed tumors. Is it thought that the medicine (chemo, virus, immunotherapy) can now no longer reach the cancer?

Cocktail + lomustine&TMZ

Hi everyone,

My mom was recently diagnosed with GBM so I'm trying to catch on the latest and greatest treatments I can get to her. According to the pathologist, her tumor was MGMT methylated.

She's in her last two weeks of radiation now and her meds are
- Temodar
- Chloroquine 250mg/day
- Longvida curcumin (just started that, she was taking regular turmeric capsules until this order came in)
- Boswellia (maybe one capsule a day, not much)
- Vitamin D 2000 iu/day
- Melatonin 10mg HS

As she comes to the end of radiation, I'm discovering that she might not qualify for some of the vaccine trials going on right now so I'm wondering if any of you know much about the trial that combined Lomustine & TMZ and if you have any feedback on that or other combinations for newly diagnosed GBM that she can inquire about.

http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/24/27/4412.short

I'd also appreciate any ideas you have for her and any meds that would be helpful to add to her cocktail.

Thanks so much for reading.