Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 5/21/2008

Question
QUESTION: Dear sir, please find the website for new treatment of brain tumor : http://www.voanews.com/urdu/2008-05-06-voa3.cfm please comments on it.

ANSWER: Sorry that page is obviously in Urdu, a language I do not know. So I can not comment on it. I did not see any link to any page in English either.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your reply, I am sending you english page for your kind comments, kindly check the link : http://www.floridahospitalmedicalnews.com/news-Neurology-Neurosurgery-id131.html

and detials are as follow, please find below the details :
Neurology & Neurosurgery (see more articles like this)
Scorpion Venom Stings Brain Tumors
Tuesday March 15, 2005
Clinical trial at the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute gives new hope to patients with brain tumors

WHAT:  When Port Orange resident, Patrick Brenner, 45, learned that his brain tumor had returned he knew he had limited treatment options.  But, thanks to a new clinical trial at the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute, Brenner is getting a second chance at life.  The trial uses scorpion venom protein tagged with radioactive iodine to deliver localized radiation to the tumor cells.  The scorpion venom protein has been found to selectively attach to brain tumor cells, while sparing normal cells.  This appears to be the first time that a therapeutic agent differentiates between normal and cancerous cells.  Traditional treatments like radiation and chemotherapy kill healthy cells in the process of controlling the cancer growth.  

The Florida Hospital Cancer Institute is one of four sites around the country, and the only one in Florida, participating in this clinical trial with TransMolecular, Inc.  131I-TM-601 is TransMolecular’s anti-cancer therapeutic that incorporates a tumor targeting, biologically active and chemically synthesized 36 amino acid peptide derived from a naturally occurring protein found in scorpion venom that is conjugated with a medicinal radioisotope referred to as iodine 131.  

According to the American Brain Tumor Association, it is estimated that 40,900 new cases of primary brain tumors will be diagnosed in 2004, of which approximately 19,000 plus cases will be diagnosed as malignant brain tumors also known as gliomas, the rest are benign and curable.

Please comments....

Regards / Altaf

Answer
Well, if it works it is fantastic, since no one at present can cure really malignant brain tumors. BUT, this report is around 4 years old and I have not heard anything more about it. So at least at present there are no obvious results of this project. Hopefully that will at some point in time and somewhere and for some reason change. But unfortunately at present as far as I know we are not there yet. Thanks for a very interesting question!