Summary
Gliomas are malignant tumor in the human brain. Despite extensive research, prognosis for these patients is poor. One challenge/barrier that prevent chemotherapy agents from entering the brain is the "blood brain barrier." This barrier can be temporarily disrupted to allow passage of chemotherapy agents to enter the brain to fight the tumor. Microcatheters can be used during angiographic procedures to deliver chemotherapy. Avastin, manufactured by Genentech (DNA), is the drug being studied.
Analysis
Malignant gliomas, commonly called glioblastomas, are one of the most frequently diagnosied brain tumors in adults. The prognosis of this disease is dismal, with average survival often being less than one year from the time of diagnosis. As a result of this poor progress, much effort is being made into developing novel treatments for these tumors. One such treatment involves the administration of chemotherapy agents directly into the brain at the site of the tumor. Several challenges exist: 1) Drugs need to be able to be delivered directly to the site of the tumor. This challenge has been overcome by the development of microcatheters which can be positioned deep into the brain at the site of the tumors. 2) The blood brain barrier, a protective evolutionary structure, needed to be temporarily breached. Fortunately, we now have drugs that can be administered through catheters which do indeed temporarily open this blood brain barrier. 3) Finally, specific chemotherapy agents need to be able to be directly delivered through these catheters directly to the site of the tumor. One such drug which has received extensive interest for malignant gliomas is Avastin, developed and marketed by Genentech, Inc. (DNA). This agent has shown to be potentially beneficial in these glioma patients, and is the subject of this study.
