May is Brain Tumour Awareness Month , a month to Turn May Grey or Go Grey for May .   Brain Tumour sites like the  Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada 's page or  Brain Cancer Canada 's page include information on Brain Tumour and Brain Cancer Awareness and Fundraising, and here I hope to share more information for any who might want to learn more.  Earlier this year, I began adding grey nail polish to my thumbnails as my own "Go grey for Me" reminder, and it's become more poignant for me this month. Brain Tumour Awareness to me is part of broader health awareness topics, where it's important for us all to be aware when something seems 'off' even when we might not know what the cause is, and especially when we might be nervous about what the cause could be.  It's so easy to go down a 'Dr. Google' rabbit hole that can sometimes make us hesitant to reach out for help.  Only when we seek help can we find answers and a path forward, so I always ...

Since my surgery, and perhaps with the residual tumour still growing in my brain, I've had difficulty remembering a six digit number long enough to get it from my cell phone screen into whatever web page or app I'm trying to use.  Since surgery, I've probably made mistakes in my MFA code around a dozen times and I've been eager to not lock any of my accounts because of this small deficit.  I easily adjusted by realizing I could remember three digits long enough to type them in, so by swapping back and forth I could learn the first three digits then enter them, then go back to the code to learn the second three digits then enter them, then gain access to my various accounts. I decided to train up on six digit codes by creating something that would generate codes for me so I could then enter them and keep track of how often I was correct.  If you know me, you probably already can guess I used Excel with a simple formula that looks something like "=rand()", or ...

Day 500! On March 15, 2024, I've reached day 500 since my craniotomy and partial lobectomy surgery to reduce seizures and lower immediate risk from my brain cancer.  I found that keeping my own journal and notes was helpful to me, and later found that sharing my story and thoughts could be helpful for others with brain cancer and those caring for them, or just other people interested in the experiences of others.  I see myself as in a unique and special position of getting to participate and observe as my own damaged brain heals and redevelops, and to use this to expand on years of personal interest in the workings of the human brain.  As I write and as you read, it's important particularly in this post to remember that I'm talking about my  experiences which will be quite unique to me so won't apply to all, and will be interpreted from my lived experience and learned knowledge with some influence from what I've read and studied before surgery and in the months afte...

Preamble and introduction Please note: this blog post might be a ‘bit of a ride’.  It was born from self-work I’m doing to adjust how I capture my daily experiences and work with them to build more reliable memories in the post-craniotomy version of my brain.  This work led me to explore related topics through published journals, in podcasts, and other material I’ve found along the way.  You can read on as I make what I think are reasonable connections between evolution and natural selection, brain function and how we experience our surroundings, memory and its fallibility, and how I believe adjusting my own strategies for learning and remembering as I live post-craniotomy with brain cancer has left me with some insight that might help others.  If this sounds interesting, keep reading!  I’ll reference sources for many of the claims within, and you can infer that non-referenced claims imply that they’re based on my understanding and connection of what I’ve expe...

 In January, 2024, and after thinking more about therapeutic advances with the potential to target mutated Isocitrate Dehydrogenase present in some brain cancers, I emailed a diverse group of experts with some thoughts on a potential future non-invasive diagnostic test that might help confirm the presence of IDH mutations.  I contacted people unknown to me, but whose names I had found on a variety of published material, in hopes that they might share it with others who could determine whether there might be future value here.  Now, I'm posting it to this blog in hopes that others with associated interest might one day find it and be able to assess the ideas viability.  Below, I share what I sent as a lengthy and unsolicited email. Sent on Monday, January 15, 2024: I write today with a hope of reaching experts who might validate or refute a future model I envision for a non-invasive and potentially simple diagnostic test to detect the presence of IDH mutations associa...

I wrote  in an earlier post  about advancements in targeting mutations in Isocitrate Dehydrogenase (IDH) as a potential therapeutic approach.  On February 20, 2024, Servier confirmed in a twitter post the filing of their New Drug Application (NDA) with the FDA.   The 'Newsroom' post on the Servier US website (at  servier.us/blog/fda-and-ema-accept-vorasidenib-regulatory-submissions... ) further confirms the 'clock start date' under a priority review that accompanies a breakthrough therapy designation, meaning that the FDA and Servier commit to a six month review and final decision / action on the NDA by August 20, 2024. By filing under the Project Orbis framework established by the FDA's Oncology Center of Excellence, this allows for concurrent and collaborative review across the US FDA, Australia's TGA, Brazil's ANVISA, Canada's Health Canada, Israel's Ministry of Health, Singapore's Health Sciences Authority, Switzerland's Swissmedic, Unit...

In my university years in the 1990s studying Biochemistry and later post-graduate education in Pharmaceutical R&D, I learned about proteins and enzymes, and possible approaches to discover and develop medicines that target the specific proteins and enzymes linked to diseases or metabolic dysfunction as a means of therapy and perhaps cure.  I learned how it was possible to screen thousands of possible chemical structures to find something that might block an enzyme by binding to it or interfering with it, and that over the course of decades an initial protein or enzyme of interest could start us down a path to identify a useful molecule and then develop it into a medicine that could be tested for safety and efficacy and later used to treat individuals and provide hope for a better quality of life. I have reviewed my textbooks and find extraordinarily little in the way of functional or causal understanding of brain cancers.   It took until 2010 and later before researchers...