Health Care
Brief Insight about New Clinical Trial of Glioblastoma
Malignant
brain tumors, also described as gliomas, meningiomas, and schwannomas all have
an overall incidence of 4.5 per 100,000 of the population. The disease may
cause central nervous system changes by invading and destroying tissues as well
as secondary effects which constitute mainly compression of the brain, cranial
nerves, and cerebral vessels or increased intracranial pressure.
Tumors can
occur at any age. In adults, incidence is highest between the ages of 40 and
60. The most common types of brain tumors are described as gliomas and
meningiomas. These tumors usually occur above the covering of cerebellum tissue
and are called supratentorial tumors. Most tumors in children occur before the
tender age of 1 or between ages 2 through 12. The most common are astrocytomas,
meduloblastomas, ependymomas, and brain stem gliomas. Brain tumors are one of
the most common causes of cancer mortality or death in children. In regards to
a prospective health insurance applicant with a history of malignant brain
tumors, insurers are hesitant about issuing a policy even after complete
remission due to risk of possible life threatening complications arising from
increased intracranial pressures, coma, respiratory, or cardiac arrest, and
brain herniation.
This article
was intended to assist applicants diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in
obtaining an approval for a health insurance policy in the individual private
healthcare marketplace. Most insurers will not consider issuing and placing a
policy if a malignant tumor was diagnosed within a prior 10 year interval. Some
carriers will consider the case contingent on answers received through
screening and also if the respective tumor was benign having received medical
clearance within the prior 2 years. The following are questions that are
specifically asked upon submission of a health insurance application and useful
tips to obtain an affirmative underwriting decision or at very least prepare a
prospective applicant to apply for a plan which would be approved.
A new clinical trial for Glioblastoma
Multiforme (GBM) is
proven helpful for cure of primary malignant brain tumor. At the present, there
exists no curative treatment and standard therapy only affords a modest, though
important, benefit. Immunotherapies, like those to be used in SEJ, are a
promising new field of study and have already shown to have some efficacy
against other types of cancer.
An activated
white blood cell can be deactivated by your body’s immune checkpoints. These
inhibitory pathways are there to modulate the immune system’s response, so as
to prevent collateral damage to your body. They can also be used by cancer
cells to shut the white blood cells that would otherwise attack it. GBM cells
are particularly effective at doing this: they are able to secrete several
systemic factors which decrease the responsiveness of the body’s immune system
and its white blood cells.
