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Past Federal Alerts:

 
House Passes Benign Brain Tumor Legislation

Great News! The House of Representatives voted by unanimous consent to pass the Benign Brain Tumor Cancer Registries Amendment Act. Thanks to the hard work of the North American Brain Tumor Coalition the federal cancer data will now require the collection process to include data on benign brain tumors.

Mifepristone Approved - Update!

On September 28, 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved mifepristone, the drug also known as RU-486. However, prior to approval, the FDA was considering restricting physician access to the drug. Under the proposed restrictions only doctors currently performing surgical abortions would be permitted to prescribe the drug. Fortunately, with its recent approval, physicians other than those performing surgical abortions can now have access to the drug for brain tumor patients.

NBTS worked to get FDA approval of Mifepristone because it has been also seen as a possible treatment for meningiomas. Unfortunately, a recent clinical trial conducted by the Southwest Oncology Group showed that treatment with mifepristone was no more effective for the average patient than taking the placebo and the trial was stopped. However, researchers will be looking into whether or not the drug holds possible benefit for a certain subset of patients.

We will keep you updated if there is any new information involving the use of mifepristone for brain tumor treatment.

THANK YOU to all NBTS Members who wrote letters and made phone calls to the FDA urging for approval of mifepristone.