Brain cancer breakthroughs: Less toxic treatments offer hope

When the very treatment keeping a patient alive also exacts a heavy toll on lives, researchers are compelled to ask, “Is there another way?”

Glioblastoma is a brutal brain cancer. It is aggressive, common and nearly always fatal. Standard treatments of radiation and chemotherapy often leave patients with cognitive problems and a diminished quality of life.

But Dr. Macarena de la Fuente, chief of the Neuro oncology Division at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, envisions a future that empowers patients to manage tumors with fewer compromises. She investigates new drugs that prolong progression-free survival and delay the need for toxic treatments.

In some of the clinical trials she and her team are advancing, the tumors even shrank in size.