Brain Cancer

Brain cancer has replaced leukemia as the leading type of cancer causing death among children.

Caregivers of young adult survivors (YAS) of childhood brain tumors, usually their mothers, live dramatically altered lives as they incorporate illness management into family life and function in caregiving roles well into the survivors’ adulthood.

Patients with cancer who have Medicaid coverage or who are uninsured are more likely to be diagnosed later and receive improper treatment for cancer, according to two recent studies, and these factors can have an impact on their survival.

A lighter and more convenient version of the tumor-treating field device Optune for patients with glioblastoma multiforme received FDA approval July 13 for the treatment of this aggressive type of brain tumor.

Survivors of childhood leukemia who received chemotherapy involving high concentrations of methotrexate were found to be more likely to struggle with brain functionality in the long term.

David Reardon, MD, clinical director, Center for Neuro-Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses caring for patients with glioblastoma.

While immunotherapies continue to gain traction across multiple tumor types, including malignancies of the central nervous system, these agents are also associated with unique adverse events.

Optune (formally the NovoTTF-100A System) in combination with adjuvant temozolomide, has been approved by the FDA to treat patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) following surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.

Dellann Elliott Mydland, from the Chris Elliott Fund, discusses the importance of testing brain tumor tissue before surgery.

Vanna Dest, MSN, APRN-BC, AOCN, Oncology Nurse Practitioner/Manager, Oncology APP, Yale-New Haven Hospital, discusses the side effects of treatment with brain radiation.

Antonia Reyes was 39 years old and 18 weeks pregnant when an MRI revealed an apparent glioma in the right temporal-parietal lobe region.

At NCONN 2011, Sean Grimm, MD, discussed the management of Glioblastoma multiforme, the most common malignant primary brain tumor.

The John Theurer Cancer Center (JTCC) at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, one of the largest cancer centers in the United States

A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials revealed treatment-related fatalities were 1.5 times higher for combination treatment with Avastin (bevacizumab) and chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone

Hospitals, pharmacists, and physicians across the United States are reporting shortages of critical anticancer drugs, including carboplatin, cisplatin, dacarbazine, fludarabine, and cytarabine.