Drug combination limited brain tumor regrowth in mice
In mice carrying childhood brain tumor models, trametinib plus navitoclax reduced regrowth after treatment stopped and improved survival.
Dose-response
Limit: Side effects of the drug combination were not reported
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In mice with transplanted BT-40 tumors, researchers tested drugs in an animal model of childhood glioma, a type of brain tumor. The models carried BRAF-V600E, a change in the BRAF gene. Trametinib induced senescence, a stable state in which cells stop dividing. Combining trametinib with navitoclax eliminated senescent tumor cells, reduced tumor regrowth after treatment stopped and improved survival.
In BT-40 cells grown in the lab, several drugs used against these tumors also induced senescence. Navitoclax killed senescent BT-40 cells primarily by inhibiting BCL-xL, a protein that helps cells avoid programmed death.
Why it matters
Senescence is a focus of aging research. Here, the authors explored whether this same cell state, induced by cancer therapy, could offer a target for limiting relapse.
Caveats
These were experiments in mice and cells grown in the lab, not a clinical trial. They do not establish whether the combination would benefit children or what side effects it would cause.
The paper
Inserm; University College London
Neuro-oncology, Oct 29, 2026, Open access
