London, Thanasis Gavos

The success of a new experimental radiation therapy which managed to halve a cancerous brain tumor in a Luton patient has been shared by researchers and doctors from the University Hospitals of London UCL.

In the first attempt at the new treatment, doctors placed a tiny medical device under the skull of 62-year-old engineer Paul Reed, who had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most common type of malignant brain tumor.

Despite having part of the tumor removed by surgery at the end of last year, doctors saw the tumor grow back.

After a new operation removed as much of the tumor as they could, they inserted this device, called Ommaya, and connected it to the remaining cancerous tumor with a small tube.

They then injected the drug ATT001, which helps repair genetic damage to cells, directly into the tumor, which allowed low amounts of radiation to be released.

Mr Reid then saw the tumor shrink by half within a few weeks. This highly targeted radiation therapy must be given over four to six weeks to the patient.

This method has the ability to attack cancer cells while leaving healthy tissues unaffected.

UCL hospital director of oncology Dr Paul Mulholland commented that the tumor shrinkage “is really quite remarkable for a patient with such an aggressive cancer”.

He also pointed out that primary brain tumors do not metastasize, so targeting them directly makes sense to cure the patient once they are cured.

The experimental treatment will be applied to one patient each month by the research team, which aims to administer the treatment to 40 patients. The process has already begun with a second patient with a brain tumor.

Doctors plan to increase each time the amount of radiation with which they target the tumor and also to combine this treatment with immunotherapy.

Dr. Mulholland noted that while the result is extremely encouraging, it has only been applied to one patient for a few weeks, so time is needed before the universal effectiveness of the method is established.