Promising research and development is being accomplished all throughout the oncology field. This includes advances in brain cancer research, which can be seen in areas as diverse as boosting the immune system to innovative surgery.

Patients with one of the most aggressive brain cancers — glioblastoma — typically have a survival rate beyond five years of less than 5 percent. But several recent studies have shown advancements in the treatment of this deadly cancer.

By looking at human brain cell tumor samples, scientists were able to not only discover a mechanism that revealed compromised immune cells, but they also identified a drug that can reactivate the compromised immune cells (microglia) in these cancer patients.

This research is still in the animal testing phase, but by using amphotericin B (AmpB), researchers at the University of Calgary were able to reduce tumor growth and increase the lifespan of mice two to three times. The medication, currently used to treat severe fungal infections of the brain and spine, is harsh. But in very small doses, it appears to be well tolerated and effective. The hope is that this discovery can be combined with current treatments and be used in a clinical trial.

Another glioblastoma animal study involved targeting macrophages surrounding the tumor, and researchers at Sloan-Kettering used an experimental drug (CSF-1R inhibitors), resulting in decreased cancer growth and extended survival in lab mice. When they used the inhibitor to target tumor-associated macrophages, the treated mice lived many months longer than the control population.

Clinical trials with the inhibitor, in combination with radiation therapy, are planned. Dr. Johanna Joyce, whose lab conducted the research at MSKCC is optimistic that CSF-1R inhibitors may offer "a more effective therapy than current treatments for the disease management of glioma patients."

Two independent studies — one at Duke and the other at Northwestern — have shown early promise in the use of vaccines for recurrent glioblastoma.

At Duke, researchers developed a method that uses a modified poliovirus that is lethal to cancer cells, while harmless to normal tissue. The virus-based therapy, called PVSRIPO, is infused directly into the tumor and triggers an immune response that attacks the infected tumor cells.

The study is small (only seven patients), but early results showed three patients responding well to the treatment. One remained disease-free for 12 months, another for 11 months, and the third for five months. Usually, glioblastoma patients see recurrent tumor growth within eight weeks.

At Northwestern, researchers took a somewhat different route. They treated patients with an experimental vaccine made from the cancer patient's resected tumor tissue. The vaccine is prepared by a vaccine production facility and is unique to the individual patient. In a study of 41 patients, each receiving an average of six doses of their own individualized vaccine, 90 percent were alive at six months, and 30 percent after one year.

Another frontier for advancement in brain cancer is in the field of neurosurgery. Scientists, neurosurgeons and engineers have combined their strengths to develop less invasive surgery for hard-to-reach tumors. The result, in a four-year collaboration, is an intracranial robot prototype that has multiple joints, allowing movement in many directions.

In addition, at the tip of the robot is a tool that can deliver heat using electricity to eventually destroy tumors and a tube used to suction diseased tissue. The device will reduce incision size and could be placed inside a tumor and have it work from within (see video above).

Reducing incision size has also been an area of advancement. Two decades ago, brain cancer surgery involved a lengthy hospital stay and weeks — even months — of recovery at home afterward. Now a minimally-invasive method can remove a lesion deep from within a patient's brain through a tube inserted into a hole the size of a dime.

At the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, this surgery was performed recently on a 44-year-old patient. Surgeons successfully removed the tumor without disturbing the tissue surrounding it. The patient went home the next day.

This new technique can be used to remove both cancerous and noncancerous tumors, lesions and cysts deep within brain tissue while reducing the ever-present risks to speech, memory, balance and other function areas of the brain.