Brain Saving Information of the Day

Antiviral drug may extend brain cancer survival, researchers say

Writing in the Sept. 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers reported on 50 patients who were given the antiviral drug valganciclovir (Valcyte) to help treat glioblastoma. The cancer is the most common form of brain tumor in adults, and it carries a dismal prognosis—with a typical survival of just over a year.

After two years, 62 percent were still alive. Of the 25 who took the antiviral continuously, 90 percent were still alive. That compared with just 18 percent of patients who received most of the same treatments—including surgery and chemotherapy—but did not take Valcyte.

Valcyte is a pill used to treat cytomegalovirus (CMV) eye infections in people with AIDS. CMV is a very common virus—up to 80 percent of adults contract it by age 40—and it usually causes no harm in someone with a healthy immune system.
Researchers have found, however, that CMV dwells in the tumor cells of most people with glioblastoma, which suggests that the virus contributes to the cancer in some way.