Brain Tumor Treatment Breakthrough!

Perhaps the most frightening malignancy one can be diagnosed with is a form of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme.

This type of brain cancer has a dismal prognosis, with median overall survival of 12 to 14 months, and a 2-year survival rate of 15% to 26%.

You may remember that Sen. Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme in May 2008. Despite intervention by brain tumor experts, Sen. Kennedy died in August 2009 — a mere 15 months later.

We at Life Extension have long been evaluating new approaches to treat this deadly malignancy. We've been frustrated by the paucity of meaningful progress and our inability to make better treatment recommendations.

A study published in the September 5, 2013 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine may represent the most significant advance yet discovered in treating glioblastoma multiforme.

What follows is an overview of this therapy that is available right now to brain tumor patients:

• The cytomegalovirus has been suspected as facilitating the initiation and promotion of brain cancers. From 50% to as many as 80% of adults in the United States show exposure to cytomegalovirus, but relatively few harbor active viral infection.
• Doctors followed 75 glioblastoma multiforme patients and found the median overall survival of those with low-grade cytomegalovirus infection was 33 months.In patients with high-grade cytomegalovirus infection, median overall survival was 13 months.
• All but one of the 75 glioblastoma multiforme patients studied had active cytomegalovirus infection, indicating that this virus may be involved in the development of this lethal malignancy.
• In glioblastoma multiforme patients with high-grade cytomegalovirus infection, median 2-year survival was 17.2%. Patients with low-grade cytomegalovirus infection had median 2-year survival rates of 63.6%. This suggests that high-grade active cytomegalovirus infection accelerates tumor progression.
• Valganciclovir (Valcyte^®) is an FDA-approved drug used to treat cytomegalovirus infection.
• In a double-blind clinical trial of valganciclovir involving 42 patients with glioblastoma, an exploratory analysis of 22 patients receiving at least 6 months of antiviral therapy showed 50% overall survival at two years compared with 20.6% of contemporary controls. This study showed that valganciclovir-treated patients have a median overall survival of 24.1 months compared to 13.7 months in patients not treated with valganciclovir.
• Owing to the promising results of this pilot study, glioblastoma multiforme patients at the world famous Karolinska University Hospital received valganciclovir and results were then compared to a control group. Both groups received standard conventional therapy and both groups had a similar disease stage and surgical-resection grade.
• The researchers retrospectively analyzed the data on 50 of these brain cancer patients and found the 2-year rate of survival in the valganciclovir group was 62%, whereas 2-year survival was only 18% in the control group.
• In 40 glioblastoma multiforme patients who received valganciclovir for at least 6 months, the 2-year survival rate was 70%, with a median overall survival of 30.1 months.
• In 25 glioblastoma multiforme patients that received continuous valganciclovir treatment after the first 6 months had a 2-year survival rate of 90%, with median overall survival of 56.4 months (4.7 years)!
• Recall that current median survival of glioblastoma multiforme patients is only 12–14 months.
• Also recall the efforts made to prolong Sen. Kennedy's life and the best the experts at Duke University Medical Center could do was 15 months.

The implication from these findings is that treating active cytomegalovirus infections may dramatically reduce progression, and significantly increase survival time, in patients suffering from the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme. Most exciting is the intriguing data from this retrospective study that valganciclovir treatment in patients with active cytomegalovirus produced an unheard of median survival of 56.4 months (4.7 years) in glioblastoma multiforme patients.

Not only does this retrospective data involving the continuous use of valganciclovir substantially extend survival in glioblastoma multiforme patients, but it provides an opportunity to add in additional complementary therapies (like metformin) that could improve survival even more!

What Brain Tumor Patients Should Do

At the time of surgical resection of the brain tumor, a specimen should be sent for immunohistochemical analysis to evaluate presence and activity of cytomegalovirus.

In glioblastoma multiforme patients with evidence of cytomegalovirus-positive tumor tissue, those who wish to follow the protocol that resulted in unprecedented survival improvements should consult with their oncologist and consider 900 mg of valganciclovir twice a day for three weeks followed by a maintenance dose of 450 mg twice a day indefinitely to be adjusted for side effects such as kidney impairment and bone marrow suppression.

Valganciclovir should be taken with fatty meals to enhance its absorption/bioavailability.

The price of valganciclovir is beyond outrageous, with the annual cost being around $50,000.

Those who have already had surgery should have their blood tested to help determine cytomegalovirus activity. Patients whose blood test reveals active cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, which appears to be an important risk factor in some glioblastoma multiforme patients, should have the cost of valganciclovir covered by their medical insurance.

Cancer patients can often have blood tests covered by their medical insurance as long as their oncologist prescribes the tests.

What Healthy Members Should Consider

Both acute cytomegalovirus infection, as well as reemergence of cytomegalovirus infection, is often asymptomatic in healthy adults.

Most healthy adults will have antibodies to the cytomegalovirus due to prior exposure, but will not have active disease.

Immunosenescence is a term used to describe age-associated changes to the immune system. Studies comparing youthful to elderly immune cells reveal significant differences in the distribution and function of immune cell types with aging, in particular immune cells that can keep cytomegalovirus inactivated.

Creation of large numbers of immune cells that respond to cytomegalovirus infection can be identified through flow cytometry. Additionally an active cytomegalovirus infection can be diagnosed through the use of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), another expensive test.

As an alternative, you can have your blood tested for presence of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibody. The antibody test for past/prior infection is called CMV IgG and it costs Life Extension members $59.

The test for acute, initial infection is called CMV IgM and it costs members $125.

A positive test for CMV IgG indicates that a person was infected with CMV at some point in time. The presence of CMV IgM is not solely indicative of primary or chronic active infection. CMV IgM is detectable when:

• a person is newly infected;
• has been infected in the past but recently re-exposed to CMV;
• is undergoing reactivation of CMV infection that was acquired in the past;
• or has a false-positive test result.

Thus, the presence of CMV IgM should not be used by itself to diagnose primary nor chronic active CMV infection.

A positive test showing the presence of both CMV IgG and IgM suggests that you have either been recently exposed to CMV for the first time, or that a previously dormant CMV infection has been reactivated in your body.

This finding can be confirmed by measuring one's IgG levels again 2 or 3 weeks later. Having a high level of IgG does not indicate an active infection; however, finding whether or not one has a rising level of IgG is key in determining if a patient currently has an active infection. If IgG levels rise by at least four-fold between the first and the second measurement than it is highly likely that one is undergoing an active CMV infection.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is part of the herpes virus family, which means that this virus is never completely cleared from the body following infection, and the maintenance of suppression of viral infection is dependent upon a strong immune system. As a member of the herpes virus family, cytomegalovirus can lie dormant in your body for decades before emerging in response to a weakening of the immune system. Valganciclovir is often prescribed to organ transplant patients who take immune-suppressing drugs, HIV patients with weakened immune systems, and nowadays patients with chronic fatigue syndrome whose underlying cause is suspected CMV infection.

The steps that aging Life Extension members take to protect against immunosenescence such as maintaining youthful levels of DHEA, suppressing oxidative stress, and taking immune boosters like garlic and reishi mushroom extracts should help keep cytomegalovirus in check. But each individual is different, and reemergence of CMV infection is often asymptomatic in normally aging people.

The member price for the blood test called CMV IgM that detects acute, initial cytomegalovirus infection is normally $125. The antibody test for past/prior infection is called CMV IgG and it normally costs Life Extension members $59.

If you order these tests by November 15, we'll include a comprehensive complete blood count and blood chemistry at no additional cost (normal member price of this CBC/chemistry panel is $35).

To ascertain if you have evidence of acute, initial, or past/prior cytomegalovirus infection, order both the CMV IgM and IgG tests at the total discounted price of $149 and receive free Life Extension's comprehensive CBC/Chemistry panel (a total savings of $70 if all three tests were ordered separately), call 1-800-208-3444.

Will Historic Human Carnage Repeat?

Glioblastoma multiforme is a death sentence. Virtually no one survives long term. It kills 12,000 Americans each year and many more throughout the world.

The findings from this study showing vast survival improvement in brain cancer patients were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Previous published studies corroborate the role that cytomegalovirus may have in human cancers and the potential benefit of valganciclovir.

Since 1980, Life Extension has been at the forefront of identifying off-label cancer drugs like cimetidine, aspirin, and metformin, but the world largely ignores us. When properly used, there is intriguing evidence that suggests these three drugs could spare tens of thousands of Americans from agonizing cancer deaths each year, yet virtually no oncology group routinely prescribes them.

The benefits reported in the New England Journal of Medicine represent the most significant survival advance against this deadly brain malignancy in history, yet these findings were virtually ignored by the mainstream media even though the life-sparing drug (valganciclovir) is available right now.

It is illegal for the maker of valganciclovir to promote it as a treatment for brain cancer. The regulatory system in the United States requires that the maker of a drug conduct extensive clinical trials for each disease a drug is claimed to treat and then submit the trial results to the FDA for approval.

While it is legal for doctors to prescribe valganciclovir off-label, that does not protect a doctor's medical license if a patient has an adverse reaction. So many oncologists may refuse to prescribe valganciclovir despite findings that it may improve survival of glioblastoma multiforme patients more than three-fold.

So there is the real possibility 12,000 Americans will continue to perish from glioblastoma multiforme each year despite impressive findings showing that valganciclovir could spare many of them from premature death.

Glioblastoma multiforme patients whose tumor specimen reveals immunohistochemical evidence of active CMV infection, or whose blood test is CMV positive for active infection, should ask their oncologist to consider valganciclovir.

My greatest concern is that this valganciclovir study published in the New England Journal of Medicine will be relegated to medical archives and not be utilized to save cancer patients, just as hundreds of published studies on metformin, aspirin and cimetidine have been ignored by the medical establishment for the past four decades.

You can help end this absurd government-enforced censorship against medical innovation by forwarding this email to everyone you know, especially anyone you know that has been diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme.

A more extensive fully referenced version of this article will appear in an upcoming issue of Life Extension Magazine^®, but due to the critical importance of this breakthrough finding, we are sending it out to every name on our email list in the hopes that at least some human lives may be spared.

For longer life,

William Faloon, Co-Founder

Life Extension Foundation^®

www.lef.org