Ketocal has been found to significantly decrease the growth of brain tumors in laboratory mice.

According to Tom Seyfried, Boston College Biology Professor:

“KetoCal represents a novel alternative therapy for malignant brain cancer.

While the tumors did not vanish in the mice who received the strict KetoCal diet, they got significantly smaller and the animals lived significantly longer.

And compared to radiation, chemotherapy and surgery, KetoCal is a relatively inexpensive treatment option.”

KetoCal is manufactured by Nutricia North America and seemed to work by depriving the brain tumor cells of the glucose that they need for survival and growth.

Study results have been described in a recent issue of the online journal Nutrition & Metabolism.

Take note, this was just tested on laboratory rats and is a long way from human study.

Find more details from the press release.

[article abstract]

Post from: Blisstree

Animal Study Found High-fat, Low-carbo Diet Slows Growth of Brain Tumors

The Expanded Endonasal Approach (EEA) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that involves using narrow scopes and surgical tools inserted through the nasal passage to remove tumors as large as baseballs.

On the other hand, the traditional approach for removing benign or malignant tumors at the skull base has involved craniofacial approaches that require peeling away skin and soft tissue, as well as musculature over the facial elements – an approach that is often not only cosmetically disfiguring but could lead to consequences to manipulating important neural tissue such as the optic nerve and the carotid artery.

This novel method offers a viable option for tumors in children and in most cases where no surgical alternative is possible.

According to lead author Amin Kassam, MD, associate professor and interim chair, Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC:

“Minimally invasive endonasal surgery has many potential benefits over traditional surgery. Using these techniques we’ve developed, we are able to remove very large tumors without incisions and often with less risk of causing brain or nerve tissue damage as we are taking a more direct route to the tumor. Therefore, recovery may be faster with a shorter hospital stay.”

Results of the novel study are published in the February issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.

Read the full report.

Find out more about endoscopic surgery services at MINC.UPMC.COM

Article abstract.

Post from: Blisstree

Expanded Endonasal Approach (EEA): Endoscopic Surgery Found More Safe and Effective than Traditional Brain Tumor Surgery

Malignant gliomas are least affected by chemotherapy and radiation. Patients only survive a year after diagnosis.

Shedding light into this seeming hopeless, fatal condition, Lund University (Sweden) research suggests that stem cells from the brain can be developed to treat gliomas.

Using the following theories:

• Neural stem cells have been shown to have the ability to recognize signals from tumor cells in the brain and migrate there.
• If stem cells are injected into a part of the brain in laboratory animals with a glioma in another part of their brain, the stem cells migrate over to the tumor area.This has spawned the idea of having stem cells transport drugs or immune stimulants to the tumor.

…the researchers found that the stem cells themselves had anti-tumor properties. As described by Karin Staflin in her dissertation (entitled: Neural progenitor cells in malignancy and injury of the brain: A Trojan horse for gliomas?):

“We were truly amazed when we saw this effect! To be sure about the phenomenon, we ran several experiments with other stem cells, and it was confirmed that certain neural stem cells actually have an anti-tumor.

Cells in aggressive malignant cancer forms are often characterized as being more immature than their environment. This may be what enables neural stem cells to affect intestinal cancer cells.”

Such finding is of new angle on the issue and though still a long shot to clinical testing, the prospects are potentially worthy of future exploration.

Source: Science Daily

Post from: Blisstree

Brain Stem Cells Shed Bit of Hope for Gliomas