Disease Focus: Brain Cancer
Stem cell-based carriers for RCR vector delivery to glioblastoma
Modified viruses can be used to infect tumor cells and alter the tumor cell to make anti-tumor proteins. Most researchers use virus that can infect and modify the tumor cell it enters, but can not make more of itself to infect additional cells surrounding the original infected cell. This type of virus is called replication-incompetent […]
The role of neural stem cells in cerebellar development, regeneration and tumorigenesis
Stem cells have the remarkable ability to renew themselves and to generate multiple different cell types. This allows them to generate normal tissues during development and to repair tissues following injury, but at the same time, renders them highly susceptible to mutations that can result in cancer. Only by understanding the signals that control growth […]
Stem Cell-Mediated Oncocidal Gene Therapy of Glioblastoma (GBM)
Brain tumors (BTs) are incurable, whether they start in the brain or spread there from other sites. Despite advances in surgical, radiation, pharmacologic, and gene therapies, survival with a BT remains dismal. Current therapies are limited by their inability to reach widely disseminated tumor cells that become dispersed within normal brain structures. Interestingly, the therapeutic […]
Stem Cell-mediated Therapy for High-grade Glioma: Toward Phase I-II Clinical Trials
Despite aggressive multimodal therapy and advances in imaging, surgical and radiation techniques, malignant brain tumors (high-grade gliomas) remain incurable, with survival often measured in months. Treatment failure is largely attributable to the diffuse and invasive nature of these brain tumor cells, ineffective delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to tumor sites, and toxic side-effects to the body, […]
Brain Tumors: Advancing Stem Cell Therapies – 2011 CIRM Grantee Meeting
Karen Aboody speaks at the 2011 CIRM Grantee Meeting about the developing a stem cell-based clinical trial for malignant brain tumors. Dr. Aboody and her team at the City of Hope Hospital medical center in Duarte, have been funded by CIRM to create a human neural cell line with the ability to target brain tumor […]