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Brain surgeons’ research prompts new approach to cancer treatment

Reporter: Alex Crystal

UPDATED on 5/22/2019

For treating high-grade gliomas, an aggressive brain cancer, the combination therapy of experimental agents Toca 511 [immunotherapy] and Toca FC [chemotherapy] failed against chemotherapy or Avastin to show extended survival

• Tocagen said Tuesday its brain cancer trial has not been able to show so far that a combination therapy of experimental agents Toca 511 and Toca FC extended survival when compared with chemotherapy or Avastin. The announcement was based on an interim analysis and the study will proceed to a final readout later this year.
• Investors took the announcement as a sign that the trial is likely to fail, as shares fell 35% Wednesday to a record low. SVB Leerink analyst Daina Graybosch raised questions about the biological effect of the combination therapy as well as earlier-stage trial designs that Tocagen used to justify moving swiftly into a pivotal trial.
• Toca 511, an immunotherapy, and Toca FC, a chemotherapy, aim to treat high-grade gliomas, an aggressive brain cancer. In the recurrent patients Tocagen hopes to treat, average survival is no more than about a year.

SOURCE

https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/tocagen-brain-cancer-trial-continues-stock-drop/555360/

Brain surgeons turn to basic science to fight childhood brain cancer @Stanford Medical School

By Krista Conger

Residents Teresa and Jamie Purzner stepped away from Neurosurgery to focus on research of medulloblastoma. The pair spent six years researching the cause of brain tumors before publishing their findings. They discovered a phosphate-adding protein called CK2 linked to the growth of this type of cancer. Afterword, they applied this finding by putting a CK2 inhibitor in mice implanted with medulloblastoma cells. After successful trials on animals, the duo combined efforts with the Stanford SPARK program to begin the development of drugs. Their efforts were rewarded and the pair went ahead with phase 1-2 clinical trials of the only known CK2 inhibitor, CX-4945. It is yet to be seen how successful their efforts will be in treating children with hedgehog-dependent medulloblastoma, but this approach opens up an entirely new and promising field of research.

SOURCE

http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/05/brain-surgeons-turn-to-basic-science-to-fight-childhood-brain-cancer.html