brain tumors

(Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) Medulloblastomas are common and aggressive brain tumors that occur mostly in children and teenagers.

In two studies, working together with international scientific teams, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München medical scientist Dr.

Ulrich Schüller has now successfully revealed the type of cell from which these tumors arise -- which could lead us to more targeted and thus better therapies for these cerebellar tumors.

(Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) In a study using laboratory animals, researchers found that medications commonly prescribed for erectile dysfunction opened a mechanism called the blood-brain tumor barrier and increased delivery of cancer-fighting drugs to malignant brain tumors.

(Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) Researchers conducting a clinical trial of a dendritic cell vaccine designed to fight malignant brain tumors called glioblastoma multiforme have found a correlation between the "intensity" of a patient's immune response and clinical outcome, according to an article in the July 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

(Washington University in St. Louis) An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Karen L.

Wooley, Ph.D., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, is a step closer to delivering cancer-killing drugs to pediatric brain tumors, similar to the tumor that Senator Ted Kennedy is suffering from.

They developed polymeric nanoparticles that can entrap doxorubicin, a drug commonly used in chemotherapy, and slowly release the drug over an extended time.

(University of Alabama at Birmingham) The Ivy Genomics-Based Medicine Project is designed to improve treatment for malignant brain tumors by striving to unravel the genetic differences between gliomas.

Consortium members like UAB will categorize tumors using sophisticated molecular profiling and, for the first time, test each tumor against a wide spectrum of treatments to match DNA markers with cancer-fighting response.

Sen. Ted Kennedy's illness, as well as questions about the possible effects of cell phone use, have kept brain tumors in the news.

Dr. Isabelle M. Germano, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai who studies brain tumors, offers a primer on detection and treatment.

(University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center) Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center will advance two new therapeutic approaches for malignant brain tumors and develop biomarkers to guide treatment decisions under a major translational research grant from the National Cancer Institute.

(University Hospitals of Cleveland) A new study from University Hospitals Case Medical Center finds that elderly patients -- 75 years old and older -- with malignant brain tumors are not treated as aggressively as patients between 65 and 75 years old.

Furthermore, the researchers find that if patients over 75 years old are treated aggressively, such as with surgery and radiation, they have better survival rates.

The findings appear in the April issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.

(Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh) Cancer researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute will further develop novel treatments for brain tumors through a new, five-year, $6.24 million grant to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

A common, naturally occurring virus that attacks cancer cells but appears to be harmless to normal cells is being studied as a possible treatment for malignant, highly aggressive and deadly brain tumors called gliomas.

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center are among a few in the United States evaluating this experimental therapy.