PI: J. Bryan Iorgulescu, Weill Cornell Medical College, 2011-2012 I have a deep-seated passion for pediatric neuro-oncology research and wish to pursue a career where I can directly fight children’s brain cancers – & hopefully one day, help find a cure. Delving into this project along side my medical school studies at Weill Cornell Medical …
Background Primary CNS tumors are the most common pediatric solid cancer, and account for 23% of malignancy in children under 15 years of age, second only to leukemia. The incidence of newly diagnosed brain tumors in the pediatric population is 3.3 cases per 100,000 children, with 3,000 children diagnosed annually. Brain tumors are also the …
Eric Raabe MD, PhD One of the goals of pediatric cancer treatment is deploying personalized medicine. Treating each patient and each tumor, with exactly the right type of therapy to maximize killing of tumor cells and minimize side effects to patients is the objective. Initially, brain tumors were classified by their appearance under the microscope. …
Medulloblastoma is the most common primary malignant central nervous system tumor arising in childhood. Survival rates for children with medulloblastomas have nearly doubled and so has the recognition that many survivors are impaired and new forms of treatment are needed. Its understanding and management represents both the progress and challenges involved in the treatment of …
Nothing is more frightening than to learn that your child has a brain tumor. These serious tumors are unfortunately all too common; in fact, malignant brain tumors are the most frequent type of solid cancer seen in childhood. To make matters more difficult, conventional radiation therapy – a mainstay of treatment for adults – cannot …
Javad Nazarian, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, Children’s National Medical Center, Center for Genetic Medicine The focus of my science career changed almost three years ago when a physician colleague approached me and proposed a potentially challenging project: molecular analysis of pediatric brainstem gliomas (BSGs). The project deemed challenging because of the lack of fresh frozen …
by David M. Panchision, Ph.D., Investigator, Center for Neuroscience Research, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC Central Nervous System (CNS) tumors are one of the most prevalent forms of cancer in the U.S. and are the leading cause of cancer deaths in children (1-3). Current therapies can affect all cells, as with radiation, or highly …
Ideally, when a child is diagnosed with a brain tumor, a multidisciplinary group of providers (neurosurgeons, neuropathologists, neuro-radiologists, neuro-oncologists, etc.) cooperate to determine the optimal treatment. Many factors influence the decision. Central to considerations are the classification, grading, and staging of pediatric brain tumors. With the exception of only a few tumor types and locations, …
Michael R. Kuettel, M.D., Ph.D. Abstract: Stereotactic radiation is a method of delivering focused irradiation to both benign and cancerous lesions. This form of treatment can be administered in single or multiple fractions (radiosurgery or stereotactic radiotherapy, respectively). This technology has evolved rapidly due to advances in both hardware and software design. Clinical indications for …
