The research team at the Brain Tumor Center of Duke University has exceptional talent, a brilliant game plan and great determination. They continue to fight on behalf of Rory and other children to find causes and cures for pediatric brain tumors. This team is making formidable strides through laboratory and clinical investigations, the results of which are most promising.

Two years ago, The Rory David Deutsch Foundation tilted the odds a little more in favor of the Duke team and afflicted patients everywhere via a grant in the amount of $2,000,000. This grant is to be paid over a ten-year period to the Duke Brain Tumor Center. Their research team is hard at work today with the hope that strong gains will be made for the future. The Rory David Deutsch Foundation is proud to continue its support of this brilliant group of scientists.

"Forty percent of our brain tumor patients are on clinical trials of one kind or another," says Tom Hadzor, Executive Director of Development and Communications for the Cancer Center at Duke. "Most other cancer centers have around five percent to eight percent at best. We are also very proud of the teams we have in three different areas," he adds.

"On the laboratory side, we have a tremendous group of people doing basic research under the direction of Dr. Darell Bigner. On the clinical side, there's Dr. Henry Friedman doing tremendous work in the medical oncology arena with drug development and trials. On the surgical side, we have Dr. Allan Friedman, an internationally recognized tumor and vascular neurosurgeon."

"For people in Chicago," continues Hadzor, "it may be appropriate to describe all three of these individuals as the 'Michael Jordans' of this kind of work. They've been working together for some time so they mesh well as a team and they are all at the top of their game in their respective areas."

Progress Update

To explain the latest research efforts, Dr. Henry Friedman reports. "What we're focusing on now are some of the different pathways that are altered in brain tumors that give them growth advantages. One of the most important pathways we're investigating in a glioblastoma is the epidural growth factor receptor, more commonly known as EGFR." According to Dr. Friedman, something wrong here can enable a tumor to grow when it might otherwise not.

"It's almost as if you've got a car with the gas to the floor and you've got no way to get that gas peddle up," he explains. "One of our strategies is to inhibit the EGFR to see the effects on tumor growth. We're also looking at a whole different group of growth factor receptors to see if one has an advantage over another. If one looks more promising, we'll push it into trials and eventually clinical care of children with brain stem gliomas."

Investigators in the labs are also focusing on a completely different bench strategy, which involves attacking the tumor indirectly in a process called "anti-angiogenesis." Friedman explains that the opponent here is a substance knows as VEG-F, which is involved in the growth process of blood vessels. "This strategy," notes Friedman, "is to inhibit VEG-F and cut off the supply of oxygen and nutrients so that the tumor can't grow. It's an indirect way of attacking the same problem."

On the clinical side, Dr. Friedman points to encouraging work using two drugs, which have previously been shown to be effective on glioblastomas growing in the laboratory. The first active agent, Karitecin, has been shown to be effective in the treatment of adult malignant gliomas, and will now be put into clinical trial with children who have brain stem tumors. "Similarly," he explains, "we will open a trial using cyclophosphamide plus thalidomide as a daily oral regimen. This drug combination has demonstrated such promising activity in the lab, that's it's now ready to be advanced to children."

Finally, it should be noted that the $2,000,000 donation from The Rory David Deutsch Foundation has resulted in other positive effects. "One gift encourages another," explains Tom Hadzor of the Duke Cancer Center. "A gift of this size gets the attention of other foundations and, as a result, the gift from the Deutsch Foundation has been extremely beneficial."

READ ABOUT THE $2,000,000 GRANT TO DUKE!