The approach is seen as a remarkable success in some brain cancer patients - with experts saying it could be available within the next 5 years
An innovative cancer treatment that is thought to be “the cure” for the disease can make the tumours disappear, according to an experimental study. The approach is seen as a remarkable success in some brain cancer patients - with experts saying it could be available within the next five years.
Statistics say over 3,00,000 cases of brain tumour are reported annually across the world, and are a consistently pressing concern for the international medical community. Even though some brain tumours are benign, many invade the normal brain and develop into fatal brain cancer. According to doctors, just one in ten patients of this deadly disease are alive a decade after their diagnosis. Since the prognosis is mostly bleak due to how fast brain cancer spreads, a lack of treatments is not able to successfully combat it.
However, the new treatment plan combines the drug ipilimumab with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy – touted as a game-changer for many sufferers.
How does ipilimumab work?
Also known as Yervoy as a brand name, ipilimumab treats several types of cancers and works as a monoclonal antibody that attaches to the CTLA-4 protein on T cells, a type of immune cell. It prevents cancer cells from suppressing the immune system, allowing the immune system to attack and destroy cancer cells. Ipilimumab is administered as a drip into the bloodstream used to treat skin cancer - first administered to shrink tumours.
Experts behind the treatment say the drug helps patients' own immune systems to seek out and destroy cancerous cells. Patients are also offered surgery to remove the remains of the tumour along with other treatment methods. As of now, doctors say only a handful of patients have been offered the innovative treatment protocol which has been pioneered by Dr. Paul Mulholland - a brain cancer specialist at the University College, London.
According to experts, this immunotherapy drug could in fact become a cure for brain cancer.
Brain cancer is difficult to treat
Experts say brain cancer is difficult to treat as many drugs are not able to bypass the blood-brain barrier - a protective wall of cells that acts as a filter and protects the brain from harmful substances and germs in the blood that could cause damage.
However, drugs like ipilimumab do not have that issue, as according to Dr. Mulholland, they work by helping your body's immune system T-cells to spot and attack tumours.
Dr. Mulholland says researchers are now planning an upcoming clinical trial that will focus on offering the drug as early as possible after patients are diagnosed. "What we want to do is get patients early on in the disease before the body is weakened by chemotherapy and radiotherapy," he said. "Essentially we're saying, let's protect the immune system so it has the best shot at fighting the cancer."
Even though Dr. Mulholland is hopeful, many other experts have urged caution on the success of the treatment, as so far it has only been used on a handful of patients, and the efficacy will not be known till the drugs are rolled out on a large scale to treat brain cancer.
The clinical trial is set to start next year.
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