Potential Brain Cancer Treatment Found

A new study by researchers at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, suggests that a drug which can fight cancers deep inside the brain could be on the way. Scientists have found that a compound that works to counteract a hormone associated with tumor growth can pass through a membrane called the blood-brain barrier. This barrier acts to protect the brain because it stops chemicals in the blood from mixing with the fluid that bathes it and the spinal cord. “The bottom line is, if you can get drugs into the brain, you can cure brain cancer,” said William A. Banks, professor of pharmacological and physiological science at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. The new findings, published online in the August 22 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that when the anti-cancer compound was injected into mice, much of it passed into the brain.