New Treatment OKd for Brain Cancer
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first significant new treatment for brain cancer in two decades--a drug that is inserted into brain tissue from which a tumor has been removed. The procedure fights malignant glioma, a fast-spreading cancer that affects about 8,000 people in America each year, by delivering the drug directly to the tumor site in high concentrations. The disease has proved resistant to conventional treatment methods like surgery and radiation. The medicine, to be marketed with the trade name Gliadel, could be given only to those for whom cancer recurs.
