![\"Cork](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5248621_4_articleinline_20261001_183735.jpg\" "\\"Cork")
Cork woman Sylvia Mehigan, who now lives in Dublin, is fighting the disease ‘as far as I can.’<\/p>\nScreening for brain tumours should be routine for under 50s because early detection can mean people live longer, a leading Irish neurosurgeon has said.<\/p>\n
People diagnosed with advanced stage four glioblastoma tumours can have as little as two years to live, even with immediate surgery.<\/p>\n
Sylvia Mehigan, a Cork woman going through treatment, said: \u201cI live every day as it comes and that\u2019s it. I\u2019m going to fight as far as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
She attended an event this week at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) discussing cutting-edge Irish research with global implications.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a seizure on January 6, out of nowhere,\u201d she said. \u201cA friend of mine found me in my house and called an ambulance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brain surgery followed within weeks.<\/p>\n
She was awake for part of the surgery so the team could monitor any impact on her speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember most of it, not all of it,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing through it, I remember crying, but I was fine, I was not in pain. I recovered really well from the surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n
She worked at TCD and University College Dublin before this, so she is very aware of the grim statistics around this disease.<\/p>\n
Cork woman Sylvia Mehigan, who now lives in Dublin, is fighting the disease ‘as far as I can.’<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I plan to be here longer; it\u2019s an average, that\u2019s what my consultant said. Everyone\u2019s different,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Donncha O\u2019Brien is clinical director at the national neurosciences centre at Beaumont Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an argument that everyone should have a scan, those under 50,\u201d said Prof O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
This is based on \u201cstrong evidence\u201d, he said, when a low-grade tumour is fully removed during surgery from the brain, then \u201cyou can stop it progressing\u201d.<\/p>\n
These tumours can have no visible symptoms.<\/p>\n
Low-grade tumours grow more slowly than high-grade ones.<\/p>\n
He called for \u201can open debate\u201d around access to MRIs for routine screening, saying \u201cthis certainly should be up for discussion\u201d.<\/p>\n
This is not international policy, he said, but \u201cthere are massive benefits to finding it early\u201d.<\/p>\n
Prof O\u2019Brien spoke to the Irish Examiner during the event.<\/p>\n
During his presentation on treatment, he said how research is key to future treatment for this \u201ctruly malignant process\u201d.<\/p>\n
There is no cure, but he said \u201cneurosurgery has made great strides\u201d in care.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the most common primary brain tumour in adults; in Ireland there are 120 cases per year and rising,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Matthew Campbell is head of the department of genetics at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, TCD.<\/p>\n
He and Prof O\u2019Brien are working on a study with 64 glioblastoma patients.<\/p>\n
This is looking at how blood vessels in the brain respond to the tumour and how the blood-brain barrier is disrupted. It will also aim to develop new forms of therapy.<\/p>\n
When they asked patients to take part, \u201cno-one said no\u201d, said Prof Campbell.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember, for a cancer it only takes one cancer cell to remain to propagate the disease again,\u201d he said of the challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about glioblastoma as an infiltrative disease and a whole-brain disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo even though you can see the tumour and you take out as much as possible, you are looking at whole brain disease.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martina Hennessy is the director of the Wellcome-HRB clinical research facility at St James\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n
Prof Hennessy spoke about an \u201cexciting\u201d new clinical trial the three speakers are developing.<\/p>\n
This LiFT-GMB trial will look at how to insert a change into the Stupp standard of care for brain tumours and make treatment more effective.<\/p>\n
They plan to trial a stimulant already used to treat ADHD called lisdexamfetamine combined with other medication.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur study will never replace Stupp,\u201d said Prof Hennessy<\/p>\n
It is instead asking whether adding lisdexamfetamine can safely modify drug delivery within this treatment pathway.<\/p>\n
The idea arose from a study Prof Campbell was involved with in England using methamphetamines.<\/p>\n
However, Prof Hennessy noted that the garda\u00ed might object to them using methamphetamines with patients, so they opted for lisdexamfetamine instead.<\/p>\n
They hope to see this study underway \u201cwithin 12 months\u201d, Prof Campbell said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Screening for brain tumours should be routine for under 50s because early detection can mean people live longer,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5963,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-644086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-brain-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}