Drug offers brain cancer victims extra weeks of normal life

Patients with incurable brain tumours could be given new hope thanks to a drug currently used on bowel cancer, a study suggests.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) kills more people under 40 than any other cancer. Each year in the UK, around 3,000 are diagnosed with the disease, the most common and most dangerous of brain tumours.

Unlike other cancers, which are more likely to strike as patients get older, GBM is just as prevalent in patients  who are young and healthy.

Unfortunately, the average sufferer will only survive for 14 months after diagnosis and 2,500 die from their tumours annually.

New hope: A new trial has found Avastin may help slow the affects of brain cancer for patients

However, a new trial published yesterday shows patients can be given an extra four-and-a-half months without their condition worsening if they also receive the drug Avastin.

The trial on 911 men and women suggests Avastin can slow the growth of the tumour, giving patients a few more months of relatively normal life before the tumour grows so big that it starts to destroy their ability to speak, their behaviour, their memory and their movement.

Normally, a patient with GBM will have around six months between diagnosis and treatment, and when they relapse and their condition deteriorates. The new trial suggests Avastin could boost that to around ten months.

Dr Kirsten Hopkins, a consultant clinical oncologist at the Bristol Oncology Centre who was in charge of the UK branch of the trial, said that although the benefit might sound small, a few weeks would be extremely important for patients.

‘These patients are often young and this disease is devastating. Everyone I speak to in the medical world feels that if they were the ones diagnosed, they would want to be themselves for as long as possible,’ she says. 

‘This is a time when patients need to be able to talk to their family, do things with loved ones, discuss the future and what their wishes are for when they have passed away. 

Fast killer: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) - the most common and dangerous type of brain tumours - kills 2,500 every year 

‘Giving them a few extra months to do that before they deteriorate and cannot speak is important. This is an endpoint in itself, even if this drug does not improve overall survival rates.’

The results of the AvAglio trial, presented at the Society for Neuro-Oncology annual meeting in Washington, do not reveal whether patients who took Avastin also survived for longer, but this set of data is due to be published early next year.

At the moment, patients diagnosed with GBM are usually offered surgery to remove the tumour, followed by cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. For most, however, relapse is inevitable and half will have died from the disease within  14 months. Around 25 per cent will manage to survive for two years, while fewer than ten per cent live for five years.

Avastin, which is made by the pharmaceutical giant Roche, works by reducing blood supply to the tumour and slowing its growth. It is already used to treat colorectal, breast and ovarian cancers.

Some patients in the UK already receive Avastin to treat recurrent forms of brain cancer, but most have had to apply through the Cancer Drugs Fund because it is not yet approved for this use on the NHS.

Charities welcomed the  news but said they wanted to know more about any possible side-effects of taking Avastin,  as well as ensure it was given  to patients before they deteriorated. They pointed  out that at the moment only  0.7 per cent of total NHS  cancer funding is spent on  brain tumours.

Colin Speirs, founder of the charity Headcase, lost his wife Becky to GBM when she was only 40. She was diagnosed in 2009 and died 14 months later, leaving three young children.

‘In principle, anything that slows the progression of GBM has to be a good thing,’ he said.

‘But this disease is such a minefield and it’s important to remember different patients are affected differently, depending on which side of the brain the tumour is found. 

‘My wife was climbing mountains after she was diagnosed but then the tumour progressed and it was on the  left of her brain, so it affected movement, personality  and memory. 

‘I would want any new drug to ensure it gives patients four more months when they can climb mountains and not four more when the disease has already robbed them of their speech and memory.’

It currently takes the average GP three months to diagnose GBM. 

This is because symptoms include severe headaches, vomiting and blurred vision, which can be attributed to other conditions such as migraine. Sufferers may also experience an itchy head and feel as if something is running across their scalp.

Figures suggest that in the next few years, about 20,000 Britons will be diagnosed with brain tumours. 

Three in every four will be  the result of cancers in other parts of the body spreading to the brain.