Chemo and radiation right after surgery may improve glioblastoma outcomes

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By Ella Pickover, PA Media

Beginning treatment within days – instead of waiting weeks, as is currently routine – may exploit time-sensitive tumour vulnerabilities, according to new research.

Early research suggests starting chemotherapy immediately after an operation to remove a glioblastoma could be most impactful.

The new study shows that the blood-brain barrier is “disrupted” during two windows during the immediate and early periods after surgery.

Experts said this could potentially reshape care for glioblastoma patients. They said that the delay of four to six weeks between surgery and the start of chemotherapy and radiotherapy has “largely been regarded as a necessity to ensure complete recovery from surgery”.

But the researchers said that in the future, the findings could help medics when to “exploit” these windows of opportunity to attack the cancerous cells left behind after surgery.

The authors of the new study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, said that the effects of glioblastoma removal surgery on the blood-brain barrier, and the impacts of chemotherapy, “have not been systematically studied” in the past.