Tocagen Continues To Make Progress On Its Innovative Brain Cancer Therapy

This week, Tocagen began enrolling patients in a Phase I trial of its Toca 511 cancer drug, used to treat an aggressive brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme. To deliver the investigational new drug, Tocagen is turning to MRI Interventions' ClearPoint, a visually guided delivery device that shows surgeons the target they need to hit and whether they've hit it.

Traditionally, delivery of drug therapies to brain tumors has been performed with neuro-navigation, a computer-assisted technology utilized by neurosurgeons that does not provide for direct visualization of drug delivery in real-time. The ClearPoint System, which is in commercial use in the U.S. for a variety of minimally-invasive neurosurgical procedures, is designed to allow real-time, direct visualization during neurosurgery.

Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure was the first non-profit to fund Tocagen's virally-based drug delivery and treatment system for brain cancer. Our investment in 2009, enabled Tocagen to move forward and raise an additional $85 million in private funding.