PITTSBURGH -- Prior to his death Wednesday, Sen. Edward Kennedy's battle with brain cancer further raised national awareness of the disease.
Channel 4 Action News anchor Michelle Wright spoke to a Pittsburgh expert on the disease who said those battling brain cancer can further make a difference by participating in clinical trials.
UPMC's Neuro-Oncology program is currently working on six clinical trials and looking for participants, including a trial that uses a device called NovaCure.
"The patient wears a shower cap on their head and this generate electromagnetic fields through the tumor cells that the generator changes in orientation in very brief intervals of time," said Dr. Frank Lieberman.
The UPMC center also has high hopes for a new vaccine being tested.
This year, another 20,000 cases of brain cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. alone.
Lieberman said it's extremely important for as many as those people as possible to participate in the study.
"We believe there is potential benefit for the patients, and also, there's a great deal of knowledge gained about how to better treat the disease even when the individual patients that are treated on the trial don't do well," said Lieberman.
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