Harnessing Another Tool for Treating Brain Cancer

In the United States alone, an estimated 700,000 people have been diagnosed and are living with a brain tumor, and it is estimated that approximately 84,000 people will receive a tumor diagnosis in 2021 [1]. Fortunately, the majority of these tumors will be benign; on average only 30% of all brain tumors are malignant. For patients with malignant tumors, the current five-year survival rate is 36% with an average 31% ten-year survival rate [2] but for those diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM)-one of the most deadly and treatment-resistant cancers-the patient survival rate falls to a low 7.2% and the median life-span after diagnosis is only eight months. GBM is the most common primary malignant brain tumor, even as an increasing numbers of cancer patients are diagnosed with brain metastases (secondary brain tumors), where the cancer has traveled to the brain from another part of the body.