This article is reprinted with permission from its author, Kim Irwin, UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. The article features researcher Dr. Harley Kornblum, a speaker at Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure's Annual Scientific Meeting in 2009.
Researchers with UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed and used a high-throughput molecular screening approach that identifies and characterizes chemical compounds that can target the stem cells that are responsible for creating deadly brain tumors.
Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure recently funded Dr. Karen Aboody, a pioneering stem cell researcher at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California.
She is working on a revolutionary new cancer treatment for the very worst brain tumors called glioblastomas (GBM). These types of tumors are so invasive that until now there's been no way to get large enough amounts of chemotherapy through the blood-brain barrier.
A University of Alabama at Birmingham study has identified a gene deletion in nearly 25 percent of all glioblastoma cases that is believed to be responsible for poor patient outcomes. The discovery could lead to better diagnosis and targeted treatments with drugs that are currently available.
