On World Brain Tumour Day (June 8), Kazia is calling for greater awareness of the signs and symptoms of brain tumours, as they can often be malignant and therefore, a potentially deadly condition.
The first symptom of a brain tumour is most often a headache. A headache is not always a sign of a tumour, but if you’re worried, you should see your GP.
Other symptoms include1:
- difficulty speaking or remembering words
- disturbed vision, hearing, smell, or taste
- seizures: severe (e.g. a convulsion) or mild (a fleeting disturbance of awareness, sensation, or jerking muscles)
- weakness or paralysis in part of the body
- loss of balance
- general irritability, drowsiness, or a change in personality
- nausea and vomiting.
Here at Kazia, we are developing a treatment called paxalisib for glioblastoma - the most common and most aggressive form of brain tumour or cancer. Despite all efforts, there have been few significant advances in treatment over the last decade, and the prognosis remains poor. The five-year survival rate is around 3%, compared with approximately 89% for patients with breast cancer.
It is estimated that approximately 2 out of every 100,000 people will develop glioblastoma each year, and there are approximately 12,500 new cases per annum in the United States. The disease commonly begins with innocuous symptoms such as headache and nausea but progresses rapidly if untreated.
Kazia is developing paxalisib in a Phase II clinical trial in the United States. Four additional investigator-led clinical studies are also underway for children with DIPG (an aggressive childhood brain cancer), for breast cancer which has metastasised to the brain, and also for any form of primary cancer which has metastasised to the brain.
1 https://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/types-of-cancer/brain-cancer.html#jump_2
