Progress: Research and Advances in Care

There is a lot going on in the field of research and study. Some of my friends from around the world are becoming involved in studies and researches being conducted. Books are being released about the options of treatment. The blood-brain barrier, which prevented many existing treatments from being used with brain tumor, is being explored. Natural and artificial treatment methods and forms of tumor control are being evaluated as options. Some have even found ways to use a bodies own DNA to create tumor killing cells.

All the articles and information is, at times, both exciting and overwhelming. With many unknown causes and much still to be learned, it may take all types of treatment to offer a cure for the conditions many live with daily.


Blood-Brain Progress
     Canadian Research

"Doctors at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, have noninvasively penetrated the blood-brain barrier to deliver a chemotherapeutic agent directly into a patient’s malignant brain tumor."


Tumor Identification in Surgery
     Glioblastoma Research

"Through OCT mapping, surgeons can differentiate cancerous tissue (red) from healthy tissue (green). "




Harnessing the DNA
     Immuno-therapy
 
' With immune therapies, it turns out you're just engendering the immune system," James Graham Brown Cancer Center's Dr. Jason Chesney said. "You're training it to get activated against the cancer and a lot of the immune therapies we use, we don't have to continue. We can give them for three or four months, and then stop and watch the patient." '


Sound Wave Technology
     Ultrasound and Tumors

"High intensity focused ultrasound or HIFU is a type of cancer treatment. Doctors give the treatment using a machine that gives off high frequency sound waves. These waves deliver a strong beam to a specific part of a cancer. Some cells die when this high intensity ultrasound beam is focused directly onto them."

     The Tumor- John Grisham



Alternative Choices
     Frankincense Oil

"In 2013, the University of Leicester conveniently published just before Christmas that has rekindled this theory. According to their press release, the Omani government-funded research has (for the first time) uncovered that frankincense has the ability to target cancer cells in late-stage ovarian cancer patients. And this all appeared to be due to AKBA (acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid)."

     Medical marijuana- Cannaboils

'Medical marijuana is gaining acceptance, but could it even help kids? Dr. William Courtney has seen it happen, and on Friday, told HuffPost Live host Alyona Minkovski about it. Saying he was "quite a skeptic 5 or 6 years ago", Dr. Courtney continued that "my youngest patient is 8 months old, and had a very massive centrally located inoperable brain tumor." The child's father pushed for non-traditional treatment utilizing cannabis.
"They were putting cannabinoid oil on the baby's pacifier twice a day, increasing the dose... And within two months there was a dramatic reduction, enough that the pediatric oncologist allowed them to go ahead with not pursuing traditional therapy."'

For Fun
     Brain Freeze
     Chocolate and the Brain
     Brain Tumor T-shirts from a survivor

So much reading, but so many different areas and forms of care and being created that offer hope and the possibility for life. Being given a life sentence is devastating. it changes you in many ways. Even if you are blessed to have what is considered a benign tumor, it still changes you and affects your very life. Some wait, with no possibility of healing or prevention, and watch as they worsen and lose who they are. Loss of executive functioning skills, memory, emotional management, even personality changes are common. Seizure is a constant risk. Hope offers a chance for more. To move beyond the limits of the mind and let the body do what it does best, heal itself.

God bless and keep you. We live in exciting times.