After about a month of treatment for blood clots in her right lung, Linda, 53, passed out. That, combined with the blood clots, led to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of her head being ordered.

She and her doctors were surprised at what they found: a brain tumor about the size of a golf ball growing behind her left eye.

“I was shocked because I hadn’t been experiencing symptoms that would have made me even think that was a possibility,” Linda said.

The tumor was big enough that it likely had been growing for some time and was starting to press on her optic nerve. The tumor could be cancer and quite certainly could lead to blindness, a stroke or worse.

Treatment close to home

Linda consulted a neurosurgeon in Louisville. Due to the location and complexity of her tumor, the surgeon recommended Norton Neuroscience Institute executive director and neurosurgeon David A. Sun. M.D., Ph.D.

That same referring surgeon also recommended Linda look at places outside of Kentucky, like the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic.

Staying close to home was important for Linda, so she met with Dr. Sun.

“He said to me, ‘Listen, I respect this tumor, but I am not afraid of it,’” she said. “I felt like going to Norton Neuroscience Institute and Norton Brownsboro Hospital with Dr. Sun would give me the greatest chance for success.”

Linda would need surgery, but it would be too risky until the blood clots in her lung cleared. That took six months — time enough for Linda to attend her daughter’s wedding and see her son graduate from veterinary school. In June 2021, it was time for the tumor to come out.

“We have a comprehensive team at our Brain Tumor Center dedicated to treating these types of tumors,” Dr. Sun said. “This was a challenging tumor because of the size and location, but we were very comfortable taking care of her because we do these kinds of cases on a regular basis.”

Early in the morning the day after Dr. Sun removed the tumor at Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Linda said, Dr. Sun and others came to her room.

“I could feel their excitement,” Linda said. “He said he had gotten close to 99% of this tumor, which they thought was benign. We found that out later it was.”

Because he was able to remove so much of the tumor and with it being benign (not cancerous), Dr. Sun was confident in Linda’s future

“I have a very strict rule when you’re doing brain tumor, which is that it’s impossible to know if you get every little part out,” Dr. Sun said. “The great news for Linda is her tumor is benign and because we removed so much of it, the tumor is very unlikely to grow back.”

Road to recovery … and looking back to COVID

Two months removed from surgery and Linda was back at work. She continues to recover but said she feels great.

“My brain feels so renewed,” she said. “It feels like from pre-surgery that my brain has gone from seeing in black and white to an explosion of color from having that massive tumor off my brain.”

She also thinks back and realizes that while nobody wants to get COVID-19, the clot it created made it possible for her brain tumor to be discovered before it caused any lasting damage.

“Now I’m a lady of faith, so I believe it was divine intervention. But medically speaking, we wouldn’t have found this until I could have had a severe seizure, a stroke or lost my vision. So in a weird way, COVID may have saved my life,” Linda said.

Great care here at home

Linda had the option to go to other national centers for her treatment. She chose Norton Neuroscience Institute and is glad she did.

“In my mind that would be the first place I would suggest people to go to because of the experience that I’ve had,” Linda said. I feel like having Dr. Sun’s hands operating on my brain and the intensity with what he had to do brought me through alive and functioning like this.”

Linda will continue to see Dr. Sun to check on whether the tumor tries to return. In the meantime, Dr. Sun had a message for Linda.

“I don’t want her to have to worry anymore. That’s my job. I’ll watch that tumor for her. She just needs to get back to living her life again.”

The post COVID-19 was a blessing for this woman — it helped reveal a brain tumor appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

What drives someone to pedal 100 miles year after year? For Scott, it was the loss of his older brother, Mark Walters. Mark was treated for a brain tumor at Norton Cancer Institute, where Scott and Mark’s sister worked. Mark ultimately lost his battle at the age of 53. For Scott, it was the “most devastating” loss he has experienced in his life. According to Scott, watching his parents grieve was especially hard.

“A child is supposed to bury their parents. A parent is not supposed to bury their child,” he said.

Scott was and is still determined to prevent other families from experiencing that same devastating loss. Scott thinks a lot about his brother as he rides on the day of Bike to Beat Cancer.

“The Mile of Silence is one of my favorite parts, because it provides a time to reflect and is motivating,” Scott said.

The camaraderie of fellow riders — especially those on the 100-mile route — as well as the volunteers cheering and supporting riders at the pit stops also helps with encouragement. “People thank you, refill your water bottle and hold your bike while you rest at the stops. The stops are so impressive,” Scott said.

Not even rain, storm winds or a pandemic can stop Scott from riding in memory of his brother.

Recalling his ride in 2018 as thunder boomed and lightning flashed, Scott said, “People in their cars driving past me must have thought I was crazy.”

At the time, the thought of stopping was not even an option.

“I thought, as bad as this is, and as hard as the winds are blowing, this can’t even compare to what my brother went through,” Scott said.

In 2020, amid pandemic-related changes to the event, Scott kept his promise to his donors to ride 100 miles by cycling a loop around Georgetown, Kentucky, near his home.

While he rides, Scott carries a list of names with him of loved ones who are battling cancer or who have lost their battle with cancer. After crossing the finish line, Scott gives his medal to one of the people or families on his list. He also shares the Bike to Beat Cancer jersey he earns every year with a family member or friend who is starting to cycle — to encourage them to join Bike to Beat Cancer.

Each year, Scott has been a Bike to Beat Cancer Champion, raising more than $1,000 to support Norton Cancer Institute. Scott hopes that through the funds raised, additional treatments and ultimately a cure for cancer will be found.

According to Scott, as long as his legs will keep pedaling, he’ll keep riding in Bike to Beat Cancer.

“I know if I am tired, and it’s painful, it’s nowhere near what my brother and other cancer patients go through,” Scott said. “I am going to finish in tribute to their fight.”

The post Eight-time century rider remembers his brother in Bike to Beat Cancer appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

John had been experiencing nearly constant headaches for months when they got so bad Jessica took him to the emergency department at Norton Hospital in downtown Louisville. On July 4, 2015, he was diagnosed with glioblastoma.

The incredibly aggressive brain cancer is typically fatal. On average, most patients survive 12 to 18 months. About 25% of patients survive more than a year, and 5% survive more than five years.

Six years after his diagnosis, John and Jessica look back with tears and joy.

Three days after his diagnosis, Norton Neuroscience Institute neurosurgeons cut into John’s skull and during the five-hour craniotomy, removed as much of the tumor as they could. Six weeks after surgery, he started radiation therapy and two years of oral chemotherapy.

Renato V. LaRocca, M.D., neuro-oncologist with the Norton Healthcare Brain Tumor Center is the first doctor with whom John remembers interacting for his treatment. Dr. LaRocca has remained his primary brain cancer physician.

After they met and Dr. LaRocca laid out his treatment plan, he recommended they seek second opinions. The couple did and decided to trust their confidence in the comprehensive care of the team at the Brain Tumor Center, a collaboration of Norton Neuroscience Institute and Norton Cancer Institute.

Busy lives, a young daughter and brain cancer appointments

John and his family spent countless hours at Norton Cancer Institute in downtown Louisville over the course of his treatment journey. From the valet parking service to the activities to help little Olive pass the time, it was clear to the couple that the team at the Brain Tumor Center had become like family.

Juggling appointments with their busy lives and arranging child care for their daughter were difficult. On several occasions, the multidisciplinary care approach not only brought more viewpoints from various specialists to collaborate on John’s case, it also made the day in and day out of getting cancer treatment easier.

Appointments were streamlined with several providers available to see John on the same visit. Questions could be answered faster.

During an appointment with one physician, a question about John’s incision came up. Five minutes later, his surgeon was in the exam room inspecting how the healing was coming along.

The team made the Bostock family feel at home, and the community of support through tough times and victories made the countless appointments a little better. The hospital was less overwhelming and intimidating with all of the smiling faces.

According to John, Dr. LaRocca’s enthusiasm and honesty were instrumental in his cancer journey. Dr. LaRocca was invested in helping him continue to live his life, and the doctor’s expertise in a new therapy was about to make a difference.

5 years of survival met with a cruel twist

Dr. LaRocca had been Norton Healthcare’s principal investigator in clinical trials of a novel device that can slow if not stop the progress of glioblastoma. The device is a cap that fits over the skull and needs to be worn nearly continuously on a shaved head as it delivers tumor treating fields (TTF). These alternating electrical fields can interrupt the division of cancer cells in the brain.

The device, marketed under the name Optune, had just gotten broader Food & Drug Administration approval for treatment of glioblastoma months after John’s diagnosis. When John was ready for this lifesaving treatment, he was in the care of one of Optune’s most experienced physicians.

John had been wearing the device nearly around the clock for years, and the treatment was working as well as anyone could have expected. During the COVID-19 pandemic, John and Jessica founded a business together and enjoyed lots of family time. John is a stay-at-home dad who keeps busy with his family, their new home and the business.

His family had gathered to celebrate his five-year survival on the Fourth of July last year when a phone call from Dr. LaRocca replaced joy with concern. A recent scan had revealed a spot on John’s brain.

John and Jessica turned to their family and their health care providers for support. The experience was an intense reminder that challenges would continue as would the outpouring of concern and care.

More examinations and tests followed. A biopsy was performed to retrieve tissue from John’s brain for laboratory testing.

After two weeks of anxious waiting, John walked into his in-laws’ house after getting a call from Dr. LaRocca. Jessica was waiting.

“We need to get a good bottle of Italian wine,” he said.

Jessica was immediately overjoyed. It was time to celebrate; the tissue was benign. The inside joke had to be explained to the rest of the family. Doctor’s orders: Dr. LaRocca prescribes Italian wine — not French — for celebrations.

“I’ll just never forget that moment because the way he said it, and I knew that’s what Dr. LaRocca told him when he called,” Jessica said.

Glioblastoma survivor’s message of resilience and acceptance

After all their challenges, the couple spreads a message of resilience. They shared a number of lessons their journey has taught them.

• Don’t push through pain. If you are experiencing chronic pain or unusual symptoms, visit a doctor. Powering through is not a sustainable or healthy option.
• Ask questions. Ask for clarification if you do not understand. Find a provider who helps get you answers and takes time to explain.
• Avoid consulting unreliable information. As tempting as consulting blogs or chat rooms can be, they can cause anxiety and spread misinformation. Consult your doctor for the most accurate information.
• Practice a healthy lifestyle. Eat nutritious foods, stay hydrated, exercise regularly and stay positive.
• Do your best to keep living. Make the most of the time you have.
• As difficult and scary as serious illnesses are, don’t isolate yourself. Find trusted family members and friends to rely on.

“My mom had cancer a number of years ago, and she told me one time, ‘You have to be OK with dying. You just have to,’” Jessica said. “I think after about a year we talked about that and he told me he was. You just have to say, ‘OK, this is it.’”

The post Six years after his brain cancer diagnosis, a glioblastoma survivor and his wife look to the future appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

What is stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS)?

Older versions of radiation therapy cast a wide net of radiation around the tumor, which damages the surrounding healthy tissue. These treatments can last over a period of weeks. But new developments in SRS allow brain tumor specialists to pinpoint cancer cells with extreme accuracy. They can address tumors in less than a week in some cases, compared with the sometimes weekslong traditional radiation therapy.

Benefits of TrueBeam SRS

• Noninvasive procedures mean no need for anesthesia and lower risks than traditional surgery. Gamma Knife requires a head frame attached temporarily to the patient’s skull.
• Minimal recovery time means you can usually get back to your normal activities almost immediately.
• Patients generally have less pain and discomfort than that associated with a typical invasive surgical procedure.

SRS at Norton Healthcare Brain Tumor Center

Stereotactic radiosurgery using TrueBeam technology is available at the Norton Healthcare Brain Tumor Center, a collaboration of Norton Neuroscience Institute and Norton Cancer Institute.

The TrueBeam platform is an innovation on the much older Gamma Knife and CyberKnife platforms.

“The advantages of the TrueBeam platform include no invasive head frame like the Gamma Knife, improved tumor localization and increased particle energy compared with both Gamma Knife and CyberKnife. For the patient, that means treatment times which are up to 80% faster than either older technology,” said Aaron C. Spalding, M.D., Ph.D., a radiation oncologist and the executive medical director for Norton Cancer Institute. “We made sure that the technology available for our patients was the most advanced today. That is our commitment to our region for beyond-state-of-the art-care.”

SRS procedures on the brain involve a team of professionals from many areas, including oncologists (cancer doctors), radiation specialists, neurologists (brain doctors) and patient navigators.

“The TrueBeam has allowed our advanced team of specialists to push the envelope for faster, safer care,” said David A. Sun, M.D., Ph.D., neurosurgeon and executive medical director of Norton Neuroscience Institute.

Comparison of Gamma Knife, TrueBeam and CyberKnife

All three treat the same cancers, but they don’t all treat the same parts of the body. While the Gamma Knife can treat only brain tumors, both the TrueBeam and CyberKnife can treat tumors in the body. However, the up to two-hour treatment time of the CyberKnife means more patient discomfort.

TrueBeam and CyberKnife both have robotic-assisted surgical systems.

• Comfort for the patient can vary among these systems. TrueBeam offers a comfortable couch and no metal head frame to secure the patient’s head. Patients do not need anesthesia. TrueBeam’s onboard scanning systems help the machine correct for any movement as it tracks the tumor cells, even as the patient breathes. CyberKnife offers a similar arrangement, but with treatment times up to two hours due to the low energy photon used. Gamma Knife procedures require sedation, and the patient’s head is restrained in a metal frame.
• Treatment times vary slightly between machines. When the Gamma Knife was invented in 1967, the patient wore an invasive head frame for hours while treatment took up to an hour. Similarly, the CyberKnife’s development in 2001 meant treatment times over an hour. In part this is due to the lower photon energy of these machines. However, the TrueBeam platform with higher megavoltage photons is able to accurately deliver radiation to targets as small as 0.5 millimeters, usually in less than 15 minutes.

The TrueBeam platform can effectively simultaneously treat 20 or more brain tumors quickly. The result for the patient is targeting their brain tumors while sparing memory and speech centers, preserving quality of life.

Trust the expertise of the Brain Tumor Center

By choosing the TrueBeam platform, the Brain Tumor Center is able to fully optimize the training and skill of the medical team using the machines.

“There are many ways to achieve the results we want,” Dr. Sun said. “We use all the skills and tools at our disposal to offer the highest levels of stereotactic radiosurgery care. And that makes all the difference in the world.”

The post The latest in noninvasive brain tumor treatment appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

Visitor restrictions were in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he found comfort in knowing his wife, a nurse at the hospital, was working nearby.

A computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a golf ball-sized mass on his brain. From there, Ben was transported to Norton Brownsboro Hospital for assessment by the Brain Tumor Center team.

Surgeons would be able to operate to remove the tumor from Ben’s right frontal lobe, but the surgery would put him at risk of losing mobility on the left side of his body. Personality changes also were a possibility.

After about a four-hour surgery, Ben was relieved.

“Surgery was really successful,” said Ben. “When I woke up, I could move all my limbs and was, mentally, very strong.”

Surgeons were able to remove most of the mass, but pathology confirmed the tumor was cancerous — astrocytoma.

“That’s one of the more common brain tumors,” said Kaylyn Sinicrope, M.D., Ben’s neuro-oncologist the Norton Brain Tumor Center, a collaboration of Norton Neuroscience Institute and Norton Cancer Institute. “It’s similar to but less aggressive than a glioblastoma, which is more commonly known.”

A grade 3 astrocytoma, Ben’s cancer was growing slower than glioblastoma, but faster than lower grade astrocytomas. A grade 3 astrocytoma tends to be less uniform in appearance and can invade neighboring tissue.

A plan of attack was in the making. The multidisciplinary Brain Tumor Center team is made up of physicians and others who bring their own expertise to every case and offer their viewpoints at a regular review of patients’ progress.

“They all had great bedside manner,” Ben said.

The team, consisting of a neuro-oncologist, behavioral oncologist, surgeon and many more specialists, decided 30 rounds of radiation, coupled with oral chemotherapy, would be the best approach.

In August, Ben completed his treatment, and he was ready for the Norton Cancer Institute Bike to Beat Cancer ride in September.

Cancer doesn’t stop for the pandemic. It didn’t stop for Ben. Yet, despite his diagnosis, his drive to help others didn’t waver. He mustered up the strength to ride 35 miles in honor of his brothers and sisters fighting cancer. His cycling team raised more than $10,000.

“Ben is such an inspiration,” Dr. Sinicrope said. “He’s someone I’m going to tell my other patients about to help inspire them.”

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“I’ve always had an interest in fixing problems and helping people,” said Dr. Sinicrope, who’s now with Norton Cancer Institute.

Dr. Sinicrope, who trained at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, treats brain tumors and other neurological conditions related to cancer.

According to Dr. Sinicrope, she chose oncology because it’s a specialty where physicians routinely form bonds with their patients. She chose neuro-oncology because she is motivated to help advance the treatment of brain tumors. She plans to focus her research on glioblastoma, a particularly dangerous brain tumor.

“I see so many patients who have so few treatment options,” Dr. Sinicrope said. “Glioblastoma is such a devastating disease. It’s very motivating for me.”

The sophisticated clinical trials at the Norton Healthcare Brain Tumor Center shows it is on the leading edge of cancer treatment research, making it a lot like the academic centers where she trained. Dr. Sinicrope has been the lead author or co-author on a number of peer-reviewed research papers.

Originally from Modesto, California, Dr. Sinicrope earned an undergraduate degree in biology before attending Boston University Medical School. She did her medical training in neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard.

“After going through neurology, I saw the oncologists and how close and connected they were to their patients. I really wanted to have that relationship with patients,” Dr. Sinicrope said.

After serving as chief resident in neurology at Harvard, Dr. Sinicrope did a fellowship in neuro-oncology at MD Anderson.

Dr. Sinicrope also treats neurological conditions related to cancer, including headaches, tremors, seizures, nerve conditions, inflammation of the brain and cognitive conditions. These Issues can be the result of either the cancer itself or treatment.

“Chemotherapy and the disease process can be toxic to the nervous system,” Dr. Sinicrope said.

When deciding where to practice medicine, Dr. Sinicrope said she was impressed with Norton Healthcare’s level of collaboration of multidisciplinary approach, something she said she hadn’t seen outside of academia.

The Brain Tumor Center is a collaboration of Norton Neuroscience Institute and Norton Cancer Institute. The Brain Tumor Center’s tumor board meets to consider each patient and allow a free flow of viewpoints from specialists across a broad spectrum of related disciplines.

Dr. Sinicrope is married to another physician, Brent J. Sinicrope, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon who did his medical training in Louisville. Together, they have a 7-month-old baby boy. When she’s not working, Dr. Sinicrope likes cooking and spinning.

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A trip to her primary care doctor and then an ear, nose and throat specialist didn’t bring a diagnosis. Six weeks of physical therapy for vertigo didn’t help, either.

Emily had other symptoms, too. Hearing loss that came and went. Hiccups. Shooting pain in her neck and the top of her head.

“I kept telling people I think I have a brain tumor,” Emily said.

Her primary care doctor scheduled a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Sure enough, Emily had a tumor on her spinal cord and brain stem.

“It was surreal. Your whole life changes in a second,” Emily said.

A rare, but highly survivable cancer

Emily was diagnosed with an ependymoma, a rare cancer of the central nervous system. Only about 1,000 adults a year in the United States are diagnosed with this type of cancer. The overall five-year survival rate for ependymoma is almost 85%, and better than 90% for adults ages 20 to 44.

Emily and her husband, Michael, went to see neurosurgeon David A. Sun, M.D., Ph.D., and radiation oncologist Aaron C. Spalding, M.D., Ph.D., at the Brain Tumor Center, a collaboration of Norton Neuroscience Institute and Norton Cancer Institute.

Drs. Sun and Spalding help lead the Brain Tumor Center — a multidisciplinary team of neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists, neuro-oncologists, neuroradiation specialists, neuropathologists, speech therapists, physical therapists, a behavioral oncologist and a nurse who serves as a patient navigator.

Emily remembered Dr. Spalding describing her situation as “a good tumor in a bad spot.” Part of her tumor was on her brainstem, which is both incredibly delicate and responsible for such basic functions as breathing.

“Dr. Sun said, ‘The tumor is a weed in your brain. You can’t just pull the weed out of the brainstem. It’s too dangerous. You have to radiate the roots,’” Emily said.

Dr. Sun performed brain surgery on Emily, removing 99% of the tumor but leaving the 1% on her brainstem.

“He saved my life. I’m forever grateful to him and Dr. Spalding,” Emily said.

Seeing the brain tumor multidisciplinary team in a single day

To kill the cancer on her brainstem, Emily underwent six weeks of radiotherapy, five days a week, with Dr. Spalding.

Between surgery and the start of radiation, Emily saw the other members of the Brain Tumor Center team.

“They cover everything, top to bottom. The whole day, I literally saw everyone in their office. They wanted to see how I was doing,” Emily said.

Emily thought about going out of state for her cancer treatment, but decided against it and is glad she stayed in Louisville.

“I loved my doctors. They’re my dream team. The care I got at Norton, I felt like a VIP,” she said. “At Norton, you get a whole team of people, and they all communicate with you. Go somewhere else, and they don’t have that.”

Evicting ‘Nerval’ the tumor

Emily tried to keep her sense of humor throughout. She hated the word “tumor” so she decided to give it a name. She came up with Nerval “out of nowhere.” She’d imagine Nerval getting kicked out of her brain and had her brother, an artist, draw a picture of Nerval as a person being evicted.

Emily’s last treatment was Jan. 31, 2017, and so far, life has imitated art. Emily’s surgery and radiation were a success. Her tumor was, in fact, evicted.

Each year on Jan. 31, her “cancerversary,” Michael presents her with a cake to celebrate.

Compassionate cancer care

The mother of three boys, Emily works as a research coordinator in the office of Undergraduate Medical Education at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, where medical students are taught communication skills including how to give a patient bad news.

Emily said her experience gave her a firsthand experience of what compassionate care looks like — and how it affects not only patients, but their family, co-workers and friends.

“Cancer is a lonely place, but when you lean on others, it does help,” said Emily, who began meditating when she received her cancer diagnosis and made daily lists of what she was grateful for. “This made me realize even though I had cancer there were still many positive things in my life

Emily has joined ependymoma support groups and also undergoes scans twice a year to ensure the tumor has not returned.

“My story is not done. Cancer has been a chapter in my book, but it’s not the only one,” she said.

Emily’s advice to other ependymoma patients is to keep hope no matter what and take life one day at a time.

“Cancer teaches you YOLO [you only live once],” Emily said, adding that the experience also taught something else: Trust her intuition. “As a cancer patient, you know your own body. Keep going until you find an answer.”

The post Emily Carr knew what the issue was — she just had to keep pushing appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

“Vaccines are basically a means to try to activate one’s own immune system to recognize the presence of cancer and eliminate it,” Dr. LaRocca said.

The phase 2 clinical trial for this vaccine was conducted by AIVITA Biomedical. Patients who were part of this all followed the same process:

• A blood sample was collected and submitted to be processed for antigen-presenting immune cells.
• Proteins from each patient’s tumor cell line were used to develop a specific vaccine personalized for that patient.
• AIVITA Biomedical shipped each patient’s prepared vaccine to Norton Cancer Institute, where it was administered at specific time points in addition to the patient’s standard treatment.

Initial trial results, released by AIVITA Biomedical in August 2019, suggest a significant decrease of tumor burden among study participants. Should this ultimately translate to survival, we will be honored to have been part of the work to move glioblastoma from largely untreatable to treatable.

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1.    This immunotherapy treatment uses a vaccine to fight brain cancer.

Vaccines are basically a means to try to activate one’s own immune system to recognize the presence of cancer and eliminate it, much like vaccines work against other diseases. There has been interest in vaccines for cancer over the last 40 years, but only one, Provenge for prostate cancer, has shown a possible survival benefit. A similar vaccine that we have worked with in the past at Norton Cancer Institute, ICT-107, demonstrated a small progression-free survival (PFS) benefit. PFS is the length of time during and after treatment that a patient lives with cancer without the cancer getting worse. This is a first step toward obtaining an overall survival (OS) benefit, or increased amount of time that patients live after a diagnosis.

Related content: Understanding astrocytoma and glioblastoma brain tumors

2.    This study is for patients with grade IV glioblastoma or gliosarcoma of the brain.

This study is open to patients who meet these criteria:

• Newly diagnosed with grade IV glioblastoma or gliosarcoma
• Between the ages of 18 to 70
• Aside from the brain tumor, patients are in relatively good health
• Have recovered without difficulty from their initial surgery

For patients who meet the study eligibility requirements, there is a two-step procedure before they can receive the vaccine:

1. A cancer cell line from the patient’s tumor is established. Proteins from this are used to develop a personalized vaccine.
2. Antigen-presenting cells (a group of immune cells) from the patient’s peripheral blood must be collected successfully.

AIVITA Biomedical prepares the vaccine and ships it to Norton Cancer Institute, and it is administered at specific time points in addition to the patient’s standard treatment. The potential side effects from receiving a vaccine are likely relatively minor.

3.    Vaccines may be one of many treatments used together for brain cancer.

Cancer treatment may require using multiple, diverse options either together or in sequence together, such as surgery, radiation, targeted therapies, immunotherapy, chemotherapy and antiangiogenesis agents (drugs or substances that keep cancer from forming new blood vessels). Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was once a devastating illness, but when multiple agents, each with a different mechanism of action were used together, it became manageable, almost a chronic disease. We hope to do the same for high-grade brain tumors.

Use of the vaccine in this particular study does not prevent a patient from receiving standard, state-of-the-art treatment for a high-grade brain tumor.

4.    Immunotherapy is the next frontier in cancer research.

Integrating immunotherapy into a comprehensive approach to treat cancer is where clinical researchers are now focused in their quest to cure this devastating illness. Our knowledge of what makes cancer tick is becoming clearer every year. As a result, novel, and often less toxic treatments are becoming available for study. Access to these treatments is only possible through a clinical trial. In fact, it is only through a controlled, systematic study that we can we learn if new treatments truly work and how to best administer them.

The post Using vaccines to treat brain cancer: 4 things to know about this immunotherapy trial appeared first on Norton Healthcare.

Prior to his son’s birth, Matt had undergone testing to find the reason for his troubling two-year history of headaches, dizziness and periodic blurred vision. He underwent an MRI on March 24.

As the new dad visited his wife and son later that day, the MRI center called. Matt needed to get to his doctor — fast!

Matt drove from the hospital straight to his primary care provider’s office. The MRI confirmed he had a brain tumor. He was told he would be scheduled to see a specialist, but Matt wanted answers right away.

In short order, Matt was scheduled him to see David A. Sun, M.D., Ph.D., neurosurgeon with Norton Neuroscience Institute.

Matt described what happened during his four-hour appointment with neurosurgery and oncology specialists who work together through the Brain Tumor Center, a collaborative program of Norton Neuroscience Institute and Norton Cancer Institute.

• Sun went over his scans and a well-defined plan for surgery and follow-up radiation treatment.
• Aaron C. Spalding, M.D., Ph.D., radiation oncologist, went over the six-week radiation care plan in detail.
• Renato V. LaRocca, M.D., an oncologist who specializes in brain tumors, provided more specifics about Matt’s tumor and what to expect going forward.

According to Dr. Spalding, this integrated approach helps provide the best care possible. The patient can have their case reviewed by a team and undergo surgery, if needed, in two to three days.

“Individually, our disciplines provide excellent patient care, but coordinating across specialties is a good example of how the whole can be so much more than the sum of its parts,” he said.

Ependymoma: a rare tumor

 Matt’s surgery to remove the brain tumor lasted more than 10 hours. Identified as an ependymoma, the tumor measured about 3.5 centimeters (just less than 1.4 inches) and was wrapped around his brain stem.

Ependymomas are rare and usually grow slowly. It’s not uncommon to live with one for a long time with no major symptoms. Since the site of origin often prevents complete surgical removal, radiation therapy is typically used to destroy remaining disease cells.

Incredibly lucky

 Matt has done well in the two years since his diagnosis. He has experienced few side effects from his surgery and 33 radiation treatments, and will get regular follow-ups over the next two years.

“I feel incredibly lucky,” Matt said. “Dr. Sun told me it’s almost unheard of to have a tumor this size and walk away with no physical deficits.”

Family and friends celebrated his 37th birthday with a casino-themed fundraiser to help cover some of the family’s medical bills, with the rest donated to the Norton Healthcare Foundation to have a room named in Matt’s honor at Norton Cancer Institute – Brownsboro.

The Davises got to know Dr. Spalding well during Matt’s many radiation treatments. When they dropped by for a recent visit, Dr. Spalding was delighted to meet the family’s newest member, 7-month-old Elly.

“Life is full of miracles,” Dr. Spalding said with a smile.

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