MP: Novel treatment for patients with glioblastoma

Brain cancer, glioblastoma, is one of the most devastating forms of cancer which invariably leads to death. Therapy involving surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy is prolonging patient life for only 2.5 months, from 12.2 to 14.6 months. The disease always recurs. Thus, there is a strong unmet medical need for new therapies that can improve patient survival. One of the characteristics responsible for the aggressive nature of glioblastoma is its extreme invasiveness. So, in order to develop new treatment strategies for glioblastoma we have screened for compounds that can inhibit the glioblastoma invasiveness. The strategy is to identify compounds that can be used in combination with current therapy. The most promising candidates have been tested on patient-derived cancer cells ad inhibit growth and invasion. In the current project we tested our candidate drugs further using an animal model. We identified the most promising compound and showed a tendency that it increased sensitivity to chemotherapy. This should be examined in further animal experiments to strengthen preclinical data before deciding on a commercialisation programme.

In the current project we tested our candidate drugs further using an animal model for proof-of-concept. We identified the most promising compound and showed a tendency that it increased sensitivity to chemotherapy. This should be examined in further animal experiments to strengthen preclinical data before deciding on a commercialisation programme.