At a scientific meeting this week, researchers hail their evidence about a new soluble drug containing liquid aspirin as a potential breakthrough in the treatment of brain tumors.

Share on Pinterest The researchers say the new drug represents a potentially groundbreaking breakthrough for future treatments of brain tumors.

The new research, from the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, features at the Brain Tumours 2016 – From Biology to Therapy meeting, held in Warsaw, Poland, 27-29 June, 2016.

Describing their findings as “potentially groundbreaking” for future treatments of brain tumors, Prof. Geoff Pilkington and Dr. Richard Hill explain their new drug is able to cross the blood-brain barrier.

The blood-brain barrier is like a smart wrapper that both protects the brain from foreign substances in the bloodstream getting into the brain, while also allowing essential molecules to pass from the brain into the bloodstream and vice versa.

Researchers trying to develop cancer drugs for treating brain tumors have found it very difficult to create compounds that pass through the blood-brain barrier. Many cancer drugs that can defeat tumors in other parts of the body cannot pass through.

The researchers note that a truly liquid aspirin has long been a goal in drug research. Currently available aspirins that are described as “soluble” are not fully soluble; they contain tiny particles of solid aspirin that cause gastric side effects.