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A new drug could help prolong the life of people diagnosed with one of the most deadly forms of brain cancer, Australian researchers say.

The original article can be found at: http://www.news.ninemsn.com.au/health/8469593/drug-could-boost-brain-cancer-survival

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what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

It's hard not to feel very excited about this story. Usually if something sounds too good to be true it probably is, but this story does seem to have a glimmer of very real hope.

The downside is, however, that the drug is only available for people in research trials and this will be very hard for anyone desperate for treatment now. In reality, it will take years before this drug is widely available for treatment - if it proves to be as successful as it sounds. Even then, it may not qualify for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme subsidy which would make the cost prohibitive for many people. These are important aspects of this kind of news and none of them are covered in this story.

This is the first time a treatment has been shown to reduce this kind of brain tumour but from the story it's not clear if this is because no other treatments can do this, or because "this group of patients are often excluded from clinical trials because of their poor prognosis".

For this diagnosis, the average survival is five months, and while there was an increase in survival time observed in this very small study, only two of ten patients survived beyond 12 months. There's no mention of quality of life, especially side-effects or toxicity associated with this treatment, so the benefits of this treatment are unclear in this story.

It would have added a lot to have talked to an independent expert in the field.

Addit: We were contacted by the journalist who wrote this story who explained there was a side-bar with other details pertaining to this study. Unfortunately the story we rated did not contain this. We will re-rate the story in light of this extra information. However, if we didn't see this then anyone else following the same link wouldn't have seen it either.

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