Last week, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) was diagnosed with the most common form of malignant brain tumor called a glioma (you can read his story here). According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the prognosis for someone diagnosed with this type of brain tumor is poor.  Of course, individual results depend on the age and overall health of the patient, how advanced the brain tumor is and the location of the tumor itself.  The typical treatment for gliomas starts with the administration of steroids to reduce the swelling of the brain and anti-convulsants to control seizures, if this is an issue.  From there, the treatment consists of radiation treatments and/or chemotherapy and possibly surgery (again depending on the factors I listed earlier).

Many patients opt to incorporate many of the same types of complementary and alternative medicines used to treat other types of cancers, such as the ones I discussed in my article about Patrick Swayze and his battle with pancreatic cancer. These could include acupuncture, aromatherapy and massage therapy, to name a few.  There is one unique treatment being explored for use in treating patients with gliomas however; the use of Scorpion venom!  Actually, to clarify, researchers have created a synthetic version of a peptide found in the venom of the giant yellow Israeli scorpion which carries radioactive iodine directly to the malignant tumor cells.  It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, right?  Initial trials have found that the treatment is well tolerated and may be very effective in treating gliomas.  To read more about this fascinating potential new treatment, you can go here (for the overview-lay persons version of the story) or here (for a more detailed, scientific discussion of the research). 

Until next time, I hope you had a great holiday weekend!