Better together: improving brain tumour treatment
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Loading... - benjamin square
- 14 Feb 2023
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Temozolomide, a chemotherapy drug discovered and developed by our scientists, changed brain tumour treatment forever.
That’s not overselling it. Temozolomide was the first drug to improve survival for people with the most common and aggressive type of adult brain tumour: glioblastoma.
Professor Malcolm Stevens and his research team at Aston University set off on the journey that led to temozolomide back in the 1970s. In 1997, clinical trial results showed that it helped people with glioblastoma live longer and stay healthier. Combined with radiotherapy, it’s now the international standard of care for the disease.
More than that, though, temozolomide showed the world that there was a way forward against glioblastoma. It made what was beginning to look impossible possible, and it gave researchers hope.
“For a long time, there was a real feeling of utter nihilism, because nothing was working,” says Professor Anthony Chalmers from the University of Glasgow. “That put doctors and scientists off wanting to work in the area, and it put drug companies off wanting to invest. But temozolomide really changed that landscape, because, for the first time, some people clearly did respond to a drug.”
It was people like you – our supporters – who powered that change.
Chalmers is a doctor and a researcher who specialises in brain tumour treatment. Temozolomide is almost part of his job description. With our funding, he and his team are combining it with other drugs to make it more effective for people with glioblastoma.
But those aren’t just any other drugs. We’ve got plenty more milestones to go along with temozolomide. Chalmers’ team are bringing it together with another revolutionary medicine discovered and developed thanks to our funding and your support.
As we finish celebrating our 20th anniversary year, we want to focus on how they’re doing it. In many ways, the story of Chalmers’ new treatment technique is also the story of Cancer Research UK.
From BRCA genes to brain tumours
So, let’s go back to 2002. That’s when the Cancer Research Campaign (which supported the early development of temozolomide) and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund came together to form the world’s biggest independent cancer research charity: Cancer Research UK.
It didn’t take long to show what we could achieve. Just a year later, we funded the first clinical trial for a new class of drugs called PARP inhibitors.
These targeted treatments stop cancer cells repairing their DNA when it gets damaged. They do that by blocking the PARP (poly adenosine diphosphate-ribose polymerase) protein. Read More…
