Another option to consider is an experimental treatment involving the use of mifepristone plus chemotherapy. The mifepristone will permit chemotherapeutic drugs across the blood brain barrier. That's why they say chemo is OK on the rest of the body but not the brain because this "blood brain barrier" blocks most chemo drugs from the brain so it can't get there to treat it.
I recall seeing a patent that was recently lodged for this innovative treatment:
Glucocorticoid blocking agents for increasing blood-brain barrier permeability
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2005/0124533.html
Glucocorticoid blockers, including glucocorticoid receptor antagonists, are effective to prevent glucocorticoid-induced decrease in permeability of the blood-brain barrier and to increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier. Administration of glucocorticoid blockers, including glucocorticoid receptor antagonists, concomitant with administration of drugs for treating diseases of the central nervous system increases delivery of such drugs into the central nervous system.
....it is believed that the BBB serves a protective function under normal conditions by protecting the CNS from exposure to potentially toxic compounds, in CNS disease the BBB may thwart therapeutic efforts by hindering the entry of therapeutic compounds into the CNS. For example, although many bacterial and fungal infections may be readily treated where the site of the infection is outside the CNS, such infections in the CNS are often very dangerous and very difficult to treat due to the inability to deliver effective doses of drugs to the site of the infection. Similarly, the action of the BBB makes treatment of cancer of the brain more difficult than treatment of cancers located outside the CNS. Even where it may be possible to deliver an effective dose of drug into the CNS by administering very large amounts of drug outside of the CNS, the drug levels outside the CNS (such as in the blood) are then often so high as to reach toxic levels deleterious to the kidneys, liver, and other vital organs. Accordingly, there is need in the art for methods to improve the delivery of compounds into the CNS.
A kit for the treatment of a patient having a CNS disorder amenable to drug therapy and not otherwise indicative of an antiglucocorticoid therapy, the kit comprising an antiglucocorticoid in sufficient amount to increase permeability of the patient's blood brain barrier, a therapeutically effective amount of a drug useful for treating the CNS disorder, and instructions for the concomitant administration of the drug and the antiglucocorticoid.
....In one embodiment, the CNS disorder is a neoplastic disease and the therapeutic drug is a chemotherapeutic agent. In one aspect, the chemotherapeutic agent is administered in combination with radiation therapy. In some embodiments, the neoplastic disease is a cerebral metastases or malignant astrocytoma.
Example: Methotrexate concentration is measured in the brains of the experimental animals. The methotrexate concentration is greater in the brains of mifepristone-treated animals than in placebo-treated animals. This result demonstrates a glucocorticoid blocker-induced increase in methotrexate delivery to the brain, consistent with an increase in BBB permeability due to mifepristone.