By Carol A. Cates, MSN, MBA, RN
Chief Nursing Officer
Odessa Regional Medical Center
My Dad had 8 siblings that survived to adulthood, and nearly that number of siblings that were either stillborn or didn’t survive past age 2. My Dad was born in 1940, and he is one of the younger kids in his family. All of the kids in my Dad’s generation were small children in a time before widespread vaccines, antibiotics, life support, prenatal care, and even CPR. I have a picture of my Dad from about 1943, he is sitting with his little sister, Gertrude Ann, who was about 18 months old at the time. Gertrude Ann died within days of when that picture was taken. She died of croup. Now we don’t even think of croup as all that serious because of the advances in medical technology. I think of Gertrude Ann often in the course of the work I do, because I get to see how far we have come since her death. We have advanced from a time where parents could and did lose half of their kids before adulthood, to a time where losing a child is rare. Despite all the controversy, we live in a time of miracles. No matter your belief system, that we have been given the gift to discover the amazing things out there that have given millions of children life when not even 80 years ago they were dying, is nothing short of miraculous. And the miracles just keep coming.
Another one of my Dad’s siblings who passed away, as an adult, but still far too young (in his early 40’s), was my Uncle Wayne. He had brain cancer. I was a teenager when my Uncle Wayne died, and I clearly remember the multiple surgeries and attempts with drugs and other treatments that the doctors tried to stop his cancer from spreading. Unfortunately, despite the valiant efforts by my Uncle, his family, and the health care team, he eventually lost the battle. They would cut it out, burn it out with lasers, poison it with chemotherapy, but that cancer just kept spreading to more and more parts of his brain and the rest of his body. It was just awful, and I know it’s a problem people with brain cancers and their families still suffer through every single day. That is why I was so excited to see a study released this week from UT Southwestern in Dallas. It is the beginning of another miracle.
Glioblastoma is the most common form of brain cancer, responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths world-wide every year. Despite all the work over the years, the prognosis for people diagnosed with glioblastoma is poor. The average person only survives 15-18 months after diagnosis with this awful cancer. The biggest reason is because it spreads so aggressively. In this study, researchers have found a molecular pathway in the brain that glioblastomas use to move to other parts of the brain and surrounding tissues. That is exciting because if you know how something spreads, you can then focus on blocking its path. What makes this study even more exiting is not only did the researchers find the paths, but they have also figured out how to block them using drugs already out on the market!
The researchers were able to demonstrate blocking those pathways in cellular lab models and in animal testing. They did that by focusing on a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). EGFR lives on the surface of glioblastoma cells and contributes to how that cancer spreads. But, when researcher tried to inhibit EGFR directly, the tumor growth didn’t change. When they focused on blocking how EGFR moves on those newly discovered pathways using another protein called BIN3, tumor growth stopped. They then looked for drugs that increased the amount of BIN3 in the brain. They found that in an existing arthritis drug called tofacitinib. When they gave this drug in the laboratory cell models and in animals, tumor growth slowed and invaded fewer tissues. Animals who received this drug survived the glioblastomas significantly longer than those who did not receive the drug.
This is very early still in research, its only in lab animals so far, but the fact that they found an existing drug that seems to work is exciting because the “safe” part of the testing for that drug has already been established. The researchers now just need to prove that its effective in slowing these tumors in humans. If that happens, it’s not a cure, but its certainly one more took in the arsenal to fight these tumors by keeping them small where other treatments could then be more effective. It also opens the doors to looking at pathway formation in other tumors and finding ways to block their spread as well. Think of the impact that would have on all kinds of cancer. As I said before, it’s just miraculous.
