New Photodynamic Therapy Offers Hope Against Brain Cancer

A planned preclinical study testing a light-activated therapy that helps to kill residual brain cancer cells after a patient has undergone surgery to remove a tumor has elicited excitement as it could provide a way forward in eliminating microscopic cancer tissue that surgeons are unable to see while surgically removing a cancerous tumor from the brain. 

During this therapy, a catheter is inserted into the void left after the visible tumor is surgically removed. This catheter glows once the laser is switched on. The resultant light activates a drug that kills any cancer cells left inside the surrounding brain tissues. The drug is contained inside the patient’s blood. 

During tests conducted in a lab, this approach was able to eliminate residual cancer tissues without harming healthy brain cells. 

Dr. John Rossmeisl, who will lead the team conducting preclinical trials featuring dogs at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, explains that this light-activated therapy addresses a critical challenge with brain cancer; the tumor tissues often resemble healthy brain tissue, so it is hard for surgical teams to be sure that they have excised the entire tumor during surgery. 

Light activation makes tumor tissues glow, so surgical teams can clearly distinguish the cancer from healthy tissue. The catheter can therefore also help during surgery, in addition to later activating a drug that cleans up the remaining cancer cells after most of the tumor has been removed. 

The success of the therapy relies on NanoVP, a drug that can cross the protective barrier of the brain. It is already approved by the FDA for use in treating eye disease, so the scientists don’t have major worries about its safety profile. 

The trials they are going to conduct on dogs with different types of brain cancer, including glioblastoma, are geared at getting data on how long the brain can safely be subjected to the light therapy, the safe doses of the laser light, and the safe dosage range for the cancer-killing drug. 

The team says that they chose dogs because canines are similar to humans and they develop cancer in the same natural ways that humans do. Consequently, dogs make better study subjects than mice because in mice, cancer has to be introduced artificially and the mice don’t respond to cancer treatment in the same way that humans do. 

The researchers are now recruiting dogs to participate in the trial at the vet school and the findings will inform the next steps in taking this new treatment approach to clinical trials involving humans. If successful, a major stride in treating the deadliest brain cancer (glioblastoma) will have been taken and the huge toll of this disease could be rolled back. 

As other research teams at firms like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) also continue their work aimed at commercializing new treatments against brain cancer, the work planned to test the photodynamic therapy on dogs will be closely watched. 

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