No Change In Brain Tumor Incidence During A Time When Cell Phone Usage Increased
There was no substantial change in brain tumor incidence among adults 5 to 10 years after cell phone usage sharply increased, according to a new brief communication published online December 3 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Although cell phone use has been proposed as a risk factor for brain tumors, a biological mechanism to explain this association is not known.
Isabelle Deltour, Ph.D., of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, in Copenhagen, and colleagues analyzed annual incidence rates of glioma and meningioma among adults aged 20-79 years from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Researchers identified 60,000 patients who were diagnosed with these types of brain tumors between 1974 and 2003.
The researchers found that incidence rates over this 30 year-period were stable, decreased, or continued a gradual increase that started before the introduction of cell phones. They also found no change in incidence trends in brain tumors from 1998 to 2003. The authors say this finding may be due to one of several reasons: that the induction period relating cell phone use to brain tumors exceeds 5-10 years; that the increased risk in this population is too small to be observed; that the increased risk is restricted to subgroups of brain tumors or cell phone users; or that there is no increased risk. Read more
World’s First Delivery Of Intra-Arterial Avastin Directly Into Brain Tumor
Filed under: Cancer / Oncology, Clinicals Trial / Drugs Trial, Neurology / Neuroscience
Neurosurgeons from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center performed the world’s first intra-arterial cerebral infusion of Avastin (bevacizumab) directly into a patient’s malignant brain tumor. This novel intra-arterial (IA) technique may expose the cancer to higher doses of the drug therapy, while possibly sparing the patient common side effects of receiving the drug intravenously (IV) or throughout their body.
The investigative procedure — called super selective intra-arterial cerebral infusion of Avastin — has been successfully performed on five patients with promising results. Details of the first case are scheduled for publication in the next issue of Journal of Experimental Therapeutics and Oncology.
The researchers are currently enrolling patients for the Phase I study, which will test the safety and tolerability of this new method of drug delivery. If proven successful, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell physician-scientists believe that this promising method may one day offer patients a new and better therapy for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a common type of brain cancer that has not responded well to currently available therapies. In addition, the authors believe that this technique may herald the birth of a new field of “interventional neuro-oncology.”