The Joyce family, about 1950
Roy (center) died of brain cancer a few years later
As cancers go, glioblastoma is a particularly nasty
brute. As you almost certainly know,
glioblastoma is a type of brain cancer, the most common type, and possibly the
most deadly. Senator John McCain, by far
my favorite politician and a true public servant, has glioblastoma - according
to some particularly despicable blob of sputum working for the Trump
administration, he is dying from it.
Most people die from glioblastoma in less than two years (although the
husband of a good family friend, - she is without doubt an ornament to our
community - lived for 18 years after diagnosis.) The husband of Linda’s Maid of Honor at our
wedding had glioblastoma, and died from it shortly thereafter. A valuable and esteemed colleague of mine in
the geology department succumbed to glioblastoma. It probably was responsible for the death of
Linda’s father when she was a little child.
You know, when I think about it, glioblastoma is right up
there near the top of things about this world that I hate. In fact, it comes in second. Right after ovarian cancer.
Well, if you read these blogs at all, you will be aware that
immunotherapy is the modern great hope of oncology. Checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T, and
other high.tech procedures of the kind give promise of cures to come, although it
would be well to remember that, at present, only a fraction of patients respond
to any particular IO (Immuno-oncology) treatment – and nobody as yet knows why.
Melanoma and blood cancers are the poster children of IO. Solid tumors, and especially ovarian cancer,
are within its sights. But
glioblastoma? Not so much.
But there is hope.
A large part of the problem is the brain-blood barrier. This is a dense layer of cells that has the responsibility to make sure that bad stuff circulating in the blood doesn’t affect the
brain. Another problem is that the immune system
doesn’t seem to work the same in the brain as elsewhere; they are working on that conundrum Anyway, to date all clinical trials testing
the effectiveness of IO procedures in cases of glioblastoma have failed, but some have
left interesting glimmers of hope. The
work goes on.
If you read the article referenced below – it is long, but interesting – you
will need to know what is meant by dendritic cells (DC). DC are created in the bone marrow, are shaped
like very little trees, and serve as the gate-keepers of the immune system; they tell T
cells, B cells, etc. what to hunt down and kill. There are lots of DCs in skin, mucous, and
similar places. They are very important;
I first heard about them only weeks ago!
For fun, Google “dendritic cells”, click on British Society
if Immunology – and marvel at the barrage of obscure medical terms that leap
at you off the page!
And, an impertinent question: how do they come up with such bazaar names
for drugs?
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