Chemotherapy, Cancer Drug Could Be Used to Treat Brain Tumors

"Yes, you did," said Hilda Hinton, Phillips' mother.

Hilda Hinton is used to filling in the gaps of her daughter's short-term memory.

Radiation didn't help and once chemotherapy treatments stopped, the tumor grew back even faster. Surgery was too risky, because Phillips' tumor is deep in the thalamus, the master control center of the brain.

"When you have a tumor in the thalmus, nothing works well," said Duke oncologist Dr. James Vredenburgh.

Vredenburgh included Phillips in a 68-patient clinical trial for a type of chemotherapy called cpt-11, plus another drug called Avastin. Avastin is approved for use with metastatic colorectal cancer and lung cancer.

Still in treatment, Phililps' tumor is shrinking, but her condition is still guarded.

The tumor has already caused some irreversible damage in Phillips' brain, but Hinton said her daughter has made great progress. She is learning to work around some of her short-term memory problems by writing things down more.

"But I feel if she can get back to 85 percent, 90 percent, I'll take it. I'll take it and run with it," Hinton said.

Vredenburgh credits Avastin for the dramatic improvement in many patients in the trial like Phillips.

Avastin does come with certain risks like raised blood pressure, increased protein in the urine and increased blood clots in the legs, so it's been used only where other therapies fail. Phillips met the strict criteria that Duke requires for their trial.