Drug 'wafers' bring hope to brain cancer sufferers

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Telegraph
By Celia Hall, Medical Editor

A new way of treating one of the most common brain cancers with drug "wafers" the size of 5p pieces is being introduced in Britain.

As many as eight wafers are put into the brain when the tumour, a malignant glioma, has been removed. They begin to work on any remaining cancer and surrounding tissue while the patient heals and waits for radiotherapy.

It is an entirely new way of delivering chemotherapy, has fewer of the debilitating side effects and, in trials, has been found to increase survival overall by 20 per cent, offering hope to patients with only months to live.

The polymer discs, impregnated with an anti-cancer drug, deliver a dose of chemotherapy, which is 1,000 times stronger than the amount that could be injected, directly to the cancer site. The discs dissolve after a few weeks.

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