Researchers at Duke have recently discovered a missing link that could be a breakthrough in treating glioblastoma—an aggressive form of brain cancer that doesn't respond to usual treatment. Part of the reason glioblastoma is so deadly is that patients with the disease have extremely low counts of T-cells—white blood cells that fight cancer.

Cancer-hunting stem cells developed from skin cells can track down and deliver a drug to destroy medulloblastoma cells that hide after surgery, according to results from early studies.

T-Cell immunotherapy is a multi-billion dollar success. Companies are genetically engineering an individual’s own immune cells to attack cancer in the blood or lymph system. Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T therapy has seen huge acquisitions and investments.

A multi-institution international team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has developed a new strategy to overcome one of the main obstacles in the treatment of brain cancer – access to the tumor. Under the influence of cancer, the blood-brain barrier diverts immune T cells that attempt to enter the brain to fight the tumor.

5-ALA is approved for administration to patients to increase the detection of the margin of invading brain glioma tumors, and thereby allow for a wider or more extensive brain tumor removal. As the most important visualization tool in daily use for neurosurgery, operating microscopes are gaining advanced functionality with innovative illumination modes.

Neuro-Oncologist Sabine Mueller and her colleagues at UCSF are leading an effort that will sequence the genetic make-up of individual brain tumors looking for their unique traits. The goal is to find multiple ways to attack the tumor, using a cocktail of drugs.