Potential Therapy For Tumor-Associated Epilepsy
Glioma, one of the most deadly and common types of brain tumor, is often associated with seizures, but the origins of these seizures and effective treatments for them have been elusive. Now a team funded by the National Institutes of Health has found that human gliomas implanted in mice release excess levels of the brain chemical glutamate, overstimulating neurons near the tumor and triggering seizures. The researchers also found that sulfasalazine, a drug on the market for treating certain inflammatory disorders, can reduce seizures in mice with glioma.
Fish Oil Supplements Can Undermine Chemotherapy Effectiveness
Patients receiving virtually all types of chemotherapy have been advised not to take fish oil supplements because they can make chemotherapy drugs ineffective, researchers from the University Medical Centre Utrecht, the Netherlands wrote in the journal Cancer Cell. Fish oils contain two fatty acids which make the tumors resistant to treatment. These fatty acids are also produced by stem cells in the blood, the authors add. The authors explained that chemotherapy commonly loses its effectiveness over time, and scientists are not completely sure why this happens.
Chemotherapy Is As Effective Before Breast Cancer Surgery As After
Whether chemotherapy is given before or after breast-conserving therapy (BCT) does not have an impact on long-term local-regional outcomes, suggesting treatment success is due more to biologic factors than chemotherapy timing, according to a study by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Presented today at the 2011 Breast Cancer Symposium, the study also found that neoadjuvant chemotherapy (given before surgery), often shrinks breast cancer tumors, making them more likely to be treatable with BCT, or a lumpectomy to remove a portion of the breast followed by radiation.