Brain tumors: New therapy surprisingly ...( Genes decide the Success of the The...),Health

It would appear that certain changes in the genotype are critical for the success of this therapy. "With eleven participants in the study, the information of one gene had been subjected to a characteristic modification", Ulrich Herrlinger declares. "These patients survived on average a good 34 months. With the other patients, these drugs appeared to bring no apparent advantage vis--vis pure radiotherapy at least, not in the dosage we tested. It is possible that a simple gene test could decide for whom a concomitant chemotherapy might be of benefit". One disadvantage of the new method are the side-effects. However, these mostly occur during the several months of the treatment phase. "After that they normally disappear completely, and the patients have no further complaints about them", Herrlinger stresses.

Working in co-operation with the Life&Brain-Zentrum in Bonn, the search is now on for more compatible, more effective, drugs. "Amongst other things, we now want to use cell cultures from original tumours to study precisely what the preparations we used in the study really effect", Dr. Martin Glas, one of the authors of the study, declares.

'/>"/>