Vitamin B12-Based Treatment May Help Fight Deadly Brain Cancer, Researchers Report - Video

A modified form of vitamin B12 may offer a promising new strategy for treating glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer with limited treatment options, according to a pilot study published in Oncoscience. Researchers found that the experimental compound was able to cross the blood-brain barrier, accumulate inside tumors, and enhance the effects of existing therapies.

Glioblastoma remains one of the deadliest brain cancers, with most patients surviving less than 15 months despite surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. A major challenge is the blood-brain barrier, which prevents many drugs from reaching tumor tissue.

The researchers investigated nitrosylcobalamin (NO-Cbl), a modified vitamin B12 compound that releases nitric oxide. Using laboratory experiments, cancer cell analyses, and rat models of glioblastoma, they evaluated whether NO-Cbl could reach brain tumors and improve treatment response.

The results showed that NO-Cbl successfully crossed the blood-brain barrier after systemic administration and accumulated preferentially within glioblastoma tissue. The compound also remained active inside tumors for at least 24 hours, while levels in normal tissues declined more rapidly. This suggests that NO-Cbl may selectively deliver nitric oxide to the tumor microenvironment.

In laboratory studies using human glioblastoma cells, combining NO-Cbl with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide or the experimental cancer therapy TRAIL produced significantly greater suppression of tumor cell growth than either treatment alone. The researchers observed synergistic effects across multiple dose ranges, indicating that the combinations worked better together than expected.

Although the findings are encouraging, the researchers emphasize that this was an early-stage pilot study. Further studies are needed to confirm the results, optimize dosing, and evaluate the compound in additional brain tumor models before it can be tested in clinical trials.

REFERENCE: Joseph A Bauer, Annette M Sysel, Michael J Dunphy. Selective blood–brain barrier penetration and tumor targeting of nitrosylcobalamin in glioblastoma: Pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution, and synergistic activity with trail and temozolomide. Oncoscience, 2026; 132026 (0): 120 DOI: 10.18632/oncoscience.654