Brain Cancer: A New Era of Hope

(Inside Science) – An interview with Steven Kalkanis at the Henry Ford Health System.

What does the future of brain cancer treatment look like?

“You know, there has never been a more hopeful time as an era, as a field, in terms of what we have in our armamentarium to treat brain tumors. We have the molecular genetic codes that we're breaking on a daily basis to try and figure out why some patients with brain tumors respond very well to one therapy versus another patient with seemingly the same diagnosis [who] may not respond at all. Now we have an ability to test the genetics of each patient's tumor to develop a targeted treatment therapy for them.

“At the same time, we've had so many advances in imaging, so that we have the advantage now of being able to take intraoperative MRI scans, and fluorescent technology to make tumors light up in the operating room. We can track where they are, and it makes surgery safer. It allows surgeons to take out more of the tumor, which then leaves to a better prognosis for our patients. But then it doesn't stop there. Once we get the tissue, we can then analyze it based on that particular patient's, and that particular tumor's, genetic profile, to develop a treatment plan that is unique only for that patient.

“And that has moved the needle more than anything else I think in the last half century. And so, as dreaded of a problem as this is, I think there's never been a more hopeful time for what we're able to offer patients.”