Scholars@Duke
Peter Edward Fecci

Peter Edward Fecci

Professor of Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery
peter.fecci@duke.edu
201 Sands Bldg., Box 3050, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Validation of the graded prognostic assessment and recursive partitioning analysis as prognostic tools using a modern cohort of patients with brain metastases.

Journal Article Neurooncol Pract · December 2024 BACKGROUND: Prognostic indices for patients with brain metastases (BM) are needed to individualize treatment and stratify clinical trials. Two frequently used tools to estimate survival in patients with BM are the recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) and ... Full text Link to item Cite

The LITT Fit in neuro-oncology: indications, imaging, and adjunctive therapies.

Journal Article J Neurooncol · November 25, 2024 PURPOSE: There is an unmet need for new treatments for many central nervous system tumors. An expanding body of research supports the use of laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) in the treatment of gliomas, recurrent brain metastases, and radiation ne ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dose-Incorporated Deep Ensemble Learning for Improving Brain Metastasis Stereotactic Radiosurgery Outcome Prediction.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · October 1, 2024 PURPOSE: To develop a novel deep ensemble learning model for accurate prediction of brain metastasis (BM) local control outcomes after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 114 brain metastases (BMs) from 82 patients were evalu ... Full text Link to item Cite

A brave new framework for glioma drug development.

Journal Article Lancet Oncol · October 2024 Patients with brain tumours are motivated to participate in clinical trials involving repeat tissue sampling. Normalising the use of neoadjuvant and staged surgical trials necessitates collaboration among patients, regulatory agencies, and researchers. Ini ... Full text Link to item Cite

Laser interstitial thermal therapy for new and recurrent meningioma: a prospective and retrospective case series.

Journal Article J Neurosurg · September 1, 2024 OBJECTIVE: Meningiomas are the most common primary brain tumors in adults and a subset are aggressive lesions resistant to standard therapies. Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) has been successfully applied to other brain tumors, and recent work ai ... Full text Link to item Cite

Breast cancer exploits neural signaling pathways for bone-to-meninges metastasis.

Journal Article Science · June 21, 2024 The molecular mechanisms that regulate breast cancer cell (BCC) metastasis and proliferation within the leptomeninges (LM) are poorly understood, which limits the development of effective therapies. In this work, we show that BCCs in mice can invade the LM ... Full text Link to item Cite

Automated segmentation of ablated lesions using deep convolutional neural networks: A basis for response assessment following laser interstitial thermal therapy.

Journal Article Neuro Oncol · June 3, 2024 BACKGROUND: Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) of intracranial tumors or radiation necrosis enables tissue diagnosis, cytoreduction, and rapid return to systemic therapies. Ablated tissue remains in situ, resulting in characteristic post-LITT edema ... Full text Link to item Cite

Determinants of Symptomatic Intracranial Progression After an Initial Stereotactic Radiosurgery Course.

Journal Article Adv Radiat Oncol · June 2024 PURPOSE: Clinical and imaging surveillance of patients with brain metastases is important after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) because many will experience intracranial progression (ITCP) requiring multidisciplinary management. The prognostic significance ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incidence and imaging characteristics of difficult to detect retrospectively identified brain metastases in patients receiving repeat courses of stereotactic radiosurgery.

Journal Article J Neurooncol · March 2024 PURPOSE: During stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) planning for brain metastases (BM), brain MRIs are reviewed to select appropriate targets based on radiographic characteristics. Some BM are difficult to detect and/or definitively identify and may go untreat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Utility of Routine Preoperative Urinalysis in the Prevention of Surgical Site Infections.

Journal Article World Neurosurg · December 2023 OBJECTIVE: Preoperative assessment is important for neurosurgical risk stratification, but the level of evidence for individual screening tests is low. In preoperative urinalysis (UA), testing may significantly increase costs and lead to inappropriate anti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Breast-to-brain metastasis is exacerbated with chemotherapy through blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier and induces Alzheimer's-like pathology.

Journal Article J Neurosci Res · December 2023 Control of breast-to-brain metastasis remains an urgent unmet clinical need. While chemotherapies are essential in reducing systemic tumor burden, they have been shown to promote non-brain metastatic invasiveness and drug-driven neurocognitive deficits thr ... Full text Link to item Cite

CD8+ T cells maintain killing of MHC-I-negative tumor cells through the NKG2D-NKG2DL axis.

Journal Article Nat Cancer · September 2023 The accepted paradigm for both cellular and anti-tumor immunity relies upon tumor cell killing by CD8+ T cells recognizing cognate antigens presented in the context of target cell major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I (MHC-I) molecules. Likewise, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gold Nanostars Obviate Limitations to Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) for the Treatment of Intracranial Tumors.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · August 15, 2023 PURPOSE: Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is an effective minimally invasive treatment option for intracranial tumors. Our group produced plasmonics-active gold nanostars (GNS) designed to preferentially accumulate within intracranial tumors and a ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Risk of Tract Seeding Following Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy for Brain Tumors.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · July 1, 2023 BACKGROUND: The management of intracranial oncological disease remains a significant challenge despite advances in systemic cancer therapy. Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) represents a novel treatment for local control of brain tumors through pho ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Deep Learning-Based Computer Aided Detection (CAD) System for Difficult-to-Detect Brain Metastases.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · March 1, 2023 PURPOSE: We sought to develop a computer-aided detection (CAD) system that optimally augments human performance, excelling especially at identifying small inconspicuous brain metastases (BMs), by training a convolutional neural network on a unique magnetic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Outcomes in Patients with Intact and Resected Brain Metastasis Treated with 5-Fraction Stereotactic Radiosurgery.

Journal Article Advances in radiation oncology · March 2023 PurposeHypofractionated stereotactic radiosurgery (HF-SRS) with or without surgical resection is potentially a preferred treatment for larger or symptomatic brain metastases (BMs). Herein, we report clinical outcomes and predictive factors followi ... Full text Cite

Racial disparities in inpatient clinical presentation, treatment, and outcomes in brain metastasis.

Journal Article Neurooncol Pract · February 2023 BACKGROUND: Few studies have assessed the impact of race on short-term patient outcomes in the brain metastasis population. The goal of this study is to evaluate the association of race with inpatient clinical presentation, treatment, in-hospital complicat ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Efficacy of laser interstitial thermal therapy for biopsy-proven radiation necrosis in radiographically recurrent brain metastases.

Journal Article Neurooncol Adv · 2023 BACKGROUND: Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) in the setting of post-SRS radiation necrosis (RN) for patients with brain metastases has growing evidence for efficacy. However, questions remain regarding hospitalization, local control, symptom contr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Systemic immune derangements are shared across various CNS pathologies and reflect novel mechanisms of immune privilege.

Journal Article Neurooncol Adv · 2023 BACKGROUND: The nervous and immune systems interact in a reciprocal manner, both under physiologic and pathologic conditions. Literature spanning various CNS pathologies including brain tumors, stroke, traumatic brain injury and de-myelinating diseases des ... Full text Link to item Cite

Laser ablation of a sphenoid wing meningioma: A case report and review of the literature.

Journal Article Surg Neurol Int · 2023 BACKGROUND: Meningiomas are the most common primary central nervous system neoplasm in the United States. While the majority of meningiomas are benign, the World Health Organization (WHO) Grade I tumors, a not-insignificant proportion of tumors are in anat ... Full text Link to item Cite

T CELL SEQUESTRATION IN POSTERIOR FOSSA TUMORS

Conference NEURO-ONCOLOGY · 2023 Cite

Preoperative validation of edema-corrected tractography in neurosurgical practice: translating surgeon insights into novel software implementation.

Journal Article Front Neurol · 2023 BACKGROUND: Peritumoral edema alters diffusion anisotropy, resulting in false negatives in tractography reconstructions negatively impacting surgical decision-making. With supratotal resections tied to survival benefit in glioma patients, advanced diffusio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neuronal CaMKK2 promotes immunosuppression and checkpoint blockade resistance in glioblastoma.

Journal Article Nat Commun · October 29, 2022 Glioblastoma (GBM) is notorious for its immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and is refractory to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Here, we identify calmodulin-dependent kinase kinase 2 (CaMKK2) as a driver of ICB resistance. CaMKK2 is highly ex ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prognostic Model for Intracranial Progression after Stereotactic Radiosurgery: A Multicenter Validation Study.

Journal Article Cancers (Basel) · October 22, 2022 Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a standard of care for many patients with brain metastases. To optimize post-SRS surveillance, this study aimed to validate a previously published nomogram predicting post-SRS intracranial progression (IP). We identified ... Full text Link to item Cite

Time to Steroid Independence After Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy vs Medical Management for Treatment of Biopsy-Proven Radiation Necrosis Secondary to Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Brain Metastasis.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · June 1, 2022 BACKGROUND: Radiation necrosis (RN) after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for brain metastases (BM) can result in significant morbidity, compounded by the effects of extended steroid therapy. Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is a minimally invasiv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Laser ablation: Heating up the anti-tumor response in the intracranial compartment.

Journal Article Adv Drug Deliv Rev · June 2022 Immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI), have had limited success in treating intracranial malignancies. These failures are due partly to the restrictive blood-brain-barrier (BBB), the profound tumor-dependent induction of local and sys ... Full text Link to item Cite

D2C7 CAR: A novel CAR T cell that simultaneously targets wildtype EGFR and its mutant isoform EGFRvIII for treatment of glioma

Conference The Journal of Immunology · May 1, 2022 AbstractBrain tumors are the leading cause of cancer death in children and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in adults. Conventional treatments are suboptimal, thus signifying the need for novel ... Full text Cite

CD8 T cells licensed with immune checkpoint blockade kill murine tumors lacking MHC-I

Conference The Journal of Immunology · May 1, 2022 AbstractMHC-I downregulation is a well described mechanism of tumor immune escape. Thus, targeting tumors with low or no MHC-I expression remains a significant challenge for T cell-based immunotherapies, inc ... Full text Cite

Navigating the ventricles: Novel insights into the pathogenesis of hydrocephalus.

Journal Article EBioMedicine · April 2022 Congenital hydrocephalus occurs in one in 500-1000 babies born in the United States and acquired hydrocephalus may occur as the consequence of stroke, intraventricular and subarachnoid hemorrhage, traumatic brain injuries, brain tumors, craniectomy or may ... Full text Link to item Cite

Is There a Role for Immunotherapy in Central Nervous System Cancers?

Journal Article Hematol Oncol Clin North Am · February 2022 Glioblastoma has emerged as an immunotherapy-refractory tumor based on negative phase III studies of anti-programmed cell death-1 therapy among newly diagnosed as well as recurrent patients. In addition, although much work on vaccine and cellular approache ... Full text Link to item Cite

Stereotactic Laser Ablation (SLA) followed by consolidation stereotactic radiosurgery (cSRS) as treatment for brain metastasis that recurred locally after initial radiosurgery (BMRS): a multi-institutional experience.

Journal Article J Neurooncol · January 2022 INTRODUCTION: The optimal treatment paradigm for brain metastasis that recurs locally after initial radiosurgery remains an area of active investigation. Here, we report outcomes for patients with BMRS treated with stereotactic laser ablation (SLA, also kn ... Full text Link to item Cite

Factors Associated With New-Onset Seizures Following Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Newly Diagnosed Brain Metastases.

Conference Adv Radiat Oncol · 2022 PURPOSE: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a highly effective therapy for newly diagnosed brain metastases. Prophylactic antiepileptic drugs are no longer routinely used in current SRS practice, owing to a perceived low overall frequency of new-onset seiz ... Full text Link to item Cite

Creation of Non-Contact Device for Use in Metastatic Melanoma Margin Identification in ex vivo Mouse Brain.

Journal Article Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng · 2022 Because contemporary intraoperative tumor detection modalities, such as intraoperative MRI, are not ubiquitously available and can disrupt surgical workflow, there is an imperative for an accessible diagnostic device that can meet the surgeon's needs in id ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Efficacy of laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) for newly diagnosed and recurrent IDH wild-type glioblastoma.

Journal Article Neurooncol Adv · 2022 BACKGROUND: Treatment options for unresectable new and recurrent glioblastoma remain limited. Laser ablation has demonstrated safety as a surgical approach to treating primary brain tumors. The LAANTERN prospective multicenter registry (NCT02392078) data w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Combination laser interstitial thermal therapy plus stereotactic radiotherapy increases time to progression for biopsy-proven recurrent brain metastases.

Journal Article Neurooncol Adv · 2022 BACKGROUND: Improved survival for patients with brain metastases has been accompanied by a rise in tumor recurrence after stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT). Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) has emerged as an effective treatment for SRT failures as a ... Full text Link to item Cite

A phase 0/surgical window-of-opportunity study in progress, evaluating evolocumab in patients with high-grade glioma or glioblastoma

Conference JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY · 2022 Background: High-grade gliomas (HGGs) are immunologically ‘cold’ tumors. This phenomenon is partly due to reduced expression of major histocompatibility class (MHC) I on the surface of tumor cells, which prevents CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity (CTLs) ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Deep Learning-Based Computer Aided Detection (CAD) System for Difficult-to-Detect Brain Metastases (BM)

Conference INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RADIATION ONCOLOGY BIOLOGY PHYSICS · 2022 Cite

Outcomes in Intact and Resected Brain Metastasis Patients Treated with Five-Fraction Stereotactic Radiosurgery

Conference INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RADIATION ONCOLOGY BIOLOGY PHYSICS · 2022 Cite

Advanced imaging techniques and planning for laser interstitial thermal therapy

Chapter · January 1, 2022 Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is a minimally invasive intracranial treatment option with a range of clinical applications, made possible through modern imaging technology. LITT has proven success in both primary and metastatic brain tumours, pa ... Full text Cite

Broad immunophenotyping of the murine brain tumor microenvironment.

Journal Article J Immunol Methods · December 2021 Here we present a 14-color flow cytometry panel for the evaluation of 13 myeloid and lymphoid populations within murine glioblastoma samples. Reagents, processing protocols, and downstream analyses were thoroughly validated and optimized to resolve the fol ... Full text Link to item Cite

CTIM-10. REPRODUCIBILITY OF CLINICAL TRIALS USING CMV-TARGETED DENDRITIC CELL VACCINES IN PATIENTS WITH GLIOBLASTOMA

Conference Neuro-Oncology · November 12, 2021 AbstractINTRODUCTIONVaccination with dendritic cells (DCs) fares poorly in primary and recurrent glioblastoma (GBM). Moreover, GBM vac ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Palliative Care Use for Critically Ill Patients With Brain Metastases.

Journal Article J Pain Symptom Manage · November 2021 CONTEXT: Critically ill patients with brain metastases (BM) face significant uncertainty regarding prognosis and survival and can benefit from Palliative care (PC). However, research regarding the role of PC in this population is lacking. OBJECTIVES: We so ... Full text Link to item Cite

CD4 T-Cell Exhaustion: Does It Exist and What Are Its Roles in Cancer?

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · November 1, 2021 In chronic infections and in cancer, persistent antigen stimulation under suboptimal conditions can lead to the induction of T-cell exhaustion. Exhausted T cells are characterized by an increased expression of inhibitory markers and a progressive and hiera ... Full text Link to item Cite

Combining Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy With SRS Improves Time to Progression for Recurrent SRS-Treated Brain Metastases.

Conference International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · November 2021 Purpose/objective(s)Improved survival for patients with brain metastases (BM) has been accompanied by a rise in tumor recurrence after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) has evolved as an effective treatment ... Full text Cite

Laser interstitial thermal therapy for brain metastases.

Journal Article Neurooncol Adv · November 2021 Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is a minimally invasive treatment for intracranial lesions entailing thermal ablation via a stereotactically placed laser probe. In metastatic disease, it has shown the most promise in the treatment of radiographic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Inpatient palliative care utilization for patients with brain metastases.

Journal Article Neurooncol Pract · August 2021 INTRODUCTION: Given the high symptom burden and complex clinical decision making associated with a diagnosis of brain metastases (BM), specialty palliative care (PC) can meaningfully improve patient quality of life. However, no prior study has formally eva ... Full text Link to item Cite

Re-evaluating Biopsy for Recurrent Glioblastoma: A Position Statement by the Christopher Davidson Forum Investigators.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · June 15, 2021 Patients with glioblastoma (GBM) need bold new approaches to their treatment, yet progress has been hindered by a relative inability to dynamically track treatment response, mechanisms of resistance, evolution of targetable mutations, and changes in mutati ... Full text Link to item Cite

Preclinical Modeling of Surgery and Steroid Therapy for Glioblastoma Reveals Changes in Immunophenotype that are Associated with Tumor Growth and Outcome.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · April 1, 2021 PURPOSE: Glioblastoma (GBM) immunotherapy clinical trials are generally initiated after standard-of-care treatment-including surgical resection, perioperative high-dose steroid therapy, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment-has either begun or failed. Howe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Unique challenges for glioblastoma immunotherapy-discussions across neuro-oncology and non-neuro-oncology experts in cancer immunology. Meeting Report from the 2019 SNO Immuno-Oncology Think Tank.

Journal Article Neuro Oncol · March 25, 2021 Cancer immunotherapy has made remarkable advances with over 50 separate Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals as first- or second-line indications since 2015. These include immune checkpoint blocking antibodies, chimeric antigen receptor-transduced ... Full text Link to item Cite

Salting the Soil: Targeting the Microenvironment of Brain Metastases.

Journal Article Mol Cancer Ther · March 2021 Paget's "seed and soil" hypothesis of metastatic spread has acted as a foundation of the field for over a century, with continued evolution as mechanisms of the process have been elucidated. The central nervous system (CNS) presents a unique soil through t ... Full text Link to item Cite

A review of glioblastoma immunotherapy.

Journal Article J Neurooncol · January 2021 INTRODUCTION: Glioblastoma is a very aggressive cancer with dismal prognosis despite standard of care including surgical resection, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. There is interest in applying immunotherapy to glioblastoma as this modality has demons ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immune suppression in gliomas.

Journal Article J Neurooncol · January 2021 INTRODUCTION: The overall survival in patients with gliomas has not significantly increased in the modern era, despite advances such as immunotherapy. This is in part due to their notorious ability to suppress local and systemic immune responses, severely ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gating Harmonization Guidelines for Intracellular Cytokine Staining Validated in Second International Multiconsortia Proficiency Panel Conducted by Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC/CRI).

Journal Article Cytometry A · January 2021 Results from the first gating proficiency panel of intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) highlighted the value of using a consensus gating approach to reduce the variability across laboratories in reported %CD8+ or %CD4+ cytokine-positive cells. Based on t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Targeting Immunometabolism in Glioblastoma.

Journal Article Front Oncol · 2021 We have only recently begun to understand how cancer metabolism affects antitumor responses and immunotherapy outcomes. Certain immunometabolic targets have been actively pursued in other tumor types, however, glioblastoma research has been slow to exploit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pushing Past the Blockade: Advancements in T Cell-Based Cancer Immunotherapies.

Journal Article Front Immunol · 2021 Successful cancer immunotherapies rely on a replete and functional immune compartment. Within the immune compartment, T cells are often the effector arm of immune-based strategies due to their potent cytotoxic capabilities. However, many tumors have evolve ... Full text Link to item Cite

Outcomes in Patients With 4 to 10 Brain Metastases Treated With Dose-Adapted Single-Isocenter Multitarget Stereotactic Radiosurgery: A Prospective Study.

Journal Article Adv Radiat Oncol · 2021 PURPOSE: To examine the effectiveness and safety of single-isocenter multitarget stereotactic radiosurgery using a volume-adapted dosing strategy in patients with 4 to 10 brain metastases. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Adult patients with 4 to 10 brain metastases ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Need for More Molecular Profiling in Brain Metastases.

Journal Article Front Oncol · 2021 As local disease control improves, the public health impact of brain metastases (BrM) continues to grow. Molecular features are frequently different between primary and metastatic tumors as a result of clonal evolution during neoplasm migration, selective ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immune checkpoint blockade therapy in high-grade glioma

Chapter · January 1, 2021 Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary brain cancer in adults and remains universally lethal. Despite extensive medical intervention, the median survival remains a bleak 15-17 months from time of diagnosis, calling for new therapeutic strategies. In ... Full text Cite

Perioperative Assessment of Cerebellar Masses and the Potential for Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome.

Journal Article World Neurosurg · December 2020 The cerebellum was long perceived to be a region of limited importance with primary functions in the regulation of motor control. A degree of its functional topography in motor modulation has been traditionally appreciated. However, an evolving body of evi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Health care resource utilization and treatment of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis in the United States.

Journal Article Neurooncol Pract · December 2020 BACKGROUND: The economic burden of cancer in the United States is substantial, and better understanding it is essential in informing health care policy and innovation. Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis (LC) represents a late complication of primary cancer spre ... Full text Link to item Cite

A prospective multicenter study of laser ablation for drug resistant epilepsy - One year outcomes.

Journal Article Epilepsy Res · November 2020 OBJECTIVE: To report one-year seizure outcomes, procedural data, and quality of life scores following laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) of epileptogenic foci. METHODS: Data from an ongoing prospective, multi-center registry were assessed. Procedura ... Full text Link to item Cite

Defining best practices for tissue procurement in immuno-oncology clinical trials: consensus statement from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Surgery Committee.

Journal Article J Immunother Cancer · November 2020 Immunotherapy is now a cornerstone for cancer treatment, and much attention has been placed on the identification of prognostic and predictive biomarkers. The success of biomarker development is dependent on accurate and timely collection of biospecimens a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Laser Ablation of Abnormal Neurological Tissue Using Robotic NeuroBlate System (LAANTERN): 12-Month Outcomes and Quality of Life After Brain Tumor Ablation.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · September 1, 2020 BACKGROUND: Laser Ablation of Abnormal Neurological Tissue using Robotic NeuroBlate System (LAANTERN) is an ongoing multicenter prospective NeuroBlate (Monteris Medical) LITT (laser interstitial thermal therapy) registry collecting real-world outcomes and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Abstract 6630: Synergistic immuno photothermal nanotherapy (SYMPHONY) for combination cancer therapy

Conference Cancer Research · August 15, 2020 AbstractCheckpoint inhibitor immunotherapy has been a revolutionary milestone in cancer treatment because it can counter the tumor immunosuppressive environment to improve patients' overall survival and even ... Full text Cite

The intersection between immunotherapy and laser interstitial thermal therapy: a multipronged future of neuro-oncology.

Journal Article Int J Hyperthermia · July 2020 The rise of immunotherapy (IT) in oncological treatment has greatly improved outcomes in a number of disease states. However, its use in tumors of the central nervous system (CNS) remains limited for multiple reasons related to the unique immunologic tumor ... Full text Link to item Cite

CAR T cells and checkpoint inhibition for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Journal Article Expert Opin Biol Ther · June 2020 Featured Publication Introduction: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain tumor and is one of the most lethal human cancers. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has markedly improved survival in previously incurable disease; however, this vanguard treatment ... Full text Link to item Cite

Current multidisciplinary management of brain metastases.

Journal Article Cancer · April 1, 2020 Featured Publication Brain metastasis (BM), the most common adult brain tumor, develops in 20% to 40% of patients with late-stage cancer and traditionally are associated with a poor prognosis. The management of patients with BM has become increasingly complex because of new an ... Full text Link to item Cite

Laser Ablation of Abnormal Neurological Tissue Using Robotic Neuroblate System (LAANTERN): Procedural Safety and Hospitalization.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · April 1, 2020 BACKGROUND: Stereotactic laser ablation (SLA) has demonstrated potential utility for a spectrum of difficult to treat neurosurgical pathologies in multiple small and/or retrospective single-institutional series. Here, we present the safety profile of SLA o ... Full text Link to item Cite

4-1BB Agonism Averts TIL Exhaustion and Licenses PD-1 Blockade in Glioblastoma and Other Intracranial Cancers.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · March 15, 2020 PURPOSE: The success of checkpoint blockade against glioblastoma (GBM) has been disappointing. Anti-PD-1 strategies may be hampered by severe T-cell exhaustion. We sought to develop a strategy that might license new efficacy for checkpoint blockade in GBM. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Targeting PD-L1 Initiates Effective Antitumor Immunity in a Murine Model of Cushing Disease.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · March 1, 2020 Featured Publication PURPOSE: Although pituitary adenoma is classified as benign, Cushing disease is associated with significant morbidity due to the numerous sequelae of elevated cortisol levels. Successful therapy for Cushing disease remains elusive due to high rates of trea ... Full text Link to item Cite

Antigen-loaded monocyte administration induces potent therapeutic antitumor T cell responses.

Journal Article J Clin Invest · February 3, 2020 Featured Publication Efficacy of dendritic cell (DC) cancer vaccines is classically thought to depend on their antigen-presenting cell (APC) activity. Studies show, however, that DC vaccine priming of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) requires the activity of endogenous DCs, sugg ... Full text Link to item Cite

Brain immunology and immunotherapy in brain tumours.

Journal Article Nat Rev Cancer · January 2020 Gliomas, the most common malignant primary brain tumours, remain universally lethal. Yet, seminal discoveries in the past 5 years have clarified the anatomy, genetics and function of the immune system within the central nervous system (CNS) and altered the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Nanostar probes: A golden platform for Synergistic Immuno Photothermal Nanotherapy (SYMPHONY) for the treatment of metastatic cancer

Conference Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · January 1, 2020 The discovery of new treatments for cancer is imperative. Recently, we showed in a proof-of-concept study that SYnergistic IMmuno PHOtothermal NanotherapY (SYMPHONY) is a powerful treatment for metastatic bladder cancer and brain tumor in mouse models. Our ... Full text Cite

Five-Fraction Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) For Resected Brain Metastases

Conference INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RADIATION ONCOLOGY BIOLOGY PHYSICS · 2020 Cite

Hypofractionated Stereotactic Radiosurgery (HF-SRS) in the Treatment of Brain Metastases

Chapter · January 1, 2020 Single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery (SF-SRS) is widely employed to safely and effectively treat small intracranial lesions. However, for large metastases or those in close proximity to critical structures, it can be difficult to obtain an acceptable ... Full text Cite

Offer Hypofractionated SRS… If Her Performance Status Is Good.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · December 1, 2019 Featured Publication Full text Link to item Cite

Upfront Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Stereotactic Laser-Ablation in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma: A Multicenter Review of Survival Outcomes Compared to a Matched Cohort of Biopsy-Only Patients.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · December 1, 2019 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Laser ablation (LA) is used as an upfront treatment in patients with deep seated newly diagnosed Glioblastoma (nGBM). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the outcomes of LA in patients with nGBM and compare them with a matched biopsy-only cohort. METHODS: T ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Evolving Modern Management of Brain Metastasis.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · November 15, 2019 Featured Publication The incidence of brain metastases is increasing as cancer therapies improve and patients live longer, providing new challenges to the multidisciplinary teams that care for these patients. Brain metastatic cancer cells possess unique characteristics that al ... Full text Link to item Cite

Operative and peri-operative considerations in the management of brain metastasis.

Journal Article Cancer Med · November 2019 Featured Publication The number of patients who develop metastatic brain lesions is increasing as the diagnosis and treatment of systemic cancers continues to improve, resulting in longer patient survival. The role of surgery in the management of brain metastasis (BM), particu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Plasmonic gold nanostar-mediated photothermal immunotherapy for brain tumor ablation and immunologic memory.

Journal Article Immunotherapy · October 2019 Featured Publication Brain tumors present unique therapeutic challenges and they include glioblastoma (GBM) and metastases from cancers of other organs. Current treatment options are limited and include surgical resection, radiation therapy, laser interstitial thermal therapy ... Full text Link to item Cite

Rescuing imperfect antigens for immuno-oncology.

Journal Article Nat Biotechnol · September 2019 Featured Publication Full text Link to item Cite

The current state of immunotherapy for gliomas: an eye toward the future.

Journal Article J Neurosurg · September 1, 2019 Featured Publication The last decade has seen a crescendo of FDA approvals for immunotherapies against solid tumors, yet glioblastoma remains a prominent holdout. Despite more than 4 decades of work with a wide range of immunotherapeutic modalities targeting glioblastoma, effi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Postoperative Five-Fraction Radiosurgery for Resected Brain Metastases

Conference International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics · September 2019 Full text Cite

Sinonasal Quality of Life Outcomes After Extended Endonasal Approaches to the Skull Base.

Journal Article J Neurol Surg B Skull Base · August 2019 Featured Publication Introduction  Endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery (EESBS) leads to significant alterations in sinonasal anatomy and physiology. However, there is limited data available on quality of life (QOL) outcomes following EESBS. Methods  A retrospective review ... Full text Link to item Cite

Fostering Antecedent T-cell Activation with 41BB Agonism Licenses Checkpoint Blockade in Murine Glioma

Conference JOURNAL OF NEUROPATHOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL NEUROLOGY · June 1, 2019 Link to item Cite

Author Correction: Sequestration of T cells in bone marrow in the setting of glioblastoma and other intracranial tumors.

Journal Article Nat Med · March 2019 Featured Publication In the version of this article originally published, the figure callout in this sentence was incorrect: "Furthermore, in S1P1-KI mice themselves, whereas PD-1 blockade was ineffectual as monotherapy, the effects of 4-1BB agonism and checkpoint blockade pro ... Full text Link to item Cite

Preventing Lck Activation in CAR T Cells Confers Treg Resistance but Requires 4-1BB Signaling for Them to Persist and Treat Solid Tumors in Nonlymphodepleted Hosts.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · January 1, 2019 Featured Publication PURPOSE: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have shown promise against solid tumors, but their efficacy has been limited, due in part, to immunosuppression by CD4+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs). Although lymphodepletion is commonly used to deplete ... Full text Link to item Cite

Predicting intracranial progression following stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases: Implications for post SRS imaging.

Journal Article J Radiosurg SBRT · 2019 Featured Publication PURPOSE: Follow-up imaging after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is crucial to identify salvageable brain metastases (BM) recurrence. As optimal imaging intervals are poorly understood, we sought to build a predictive model for time to intracranial progres ... Link to item Cite

Creation of a non-contact, automated brain tumor detection device for use in brain tumor resection

Conference Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · January 1, 2019 The ability to differentiate healthy and tumorous tissue is vital during the surgical removal of tumors. This ability is especially critical during neurosurgical tumor resection due to the risk associated with removing healthy brain tissue. In this paper, ... Full text Cite

T-cell exhaustion in glioblastoma.

Journal Article Oncotarget · October 19, 2018 Featured Publication Full text Link to item Cite

Hyaluronic acid based low viscosity hydrogel as a novel carrier for Convection Enhanced Delivery of CAR T cells.

Journal Article J Clin Neurosci · October 2018 Featured Publication Convection Enhanced Delivery (CED) infuses therapeutic agents directly into the intracranial area continuously under pressure. The convection improves the distribution of therapeutics such as those aimed at brain tumors. Although CED successfully delivers ... Full text Link to item Cite

T-Cell Exhaustion Signatures Vary with Tumor Type and Are Severe in Glioblastoma.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · September 1, 2018 Featured Publication Purpose: T-cell dysfunction is a hallmark of glioblastoma (GBM). Although anergy and tolerance have been well characterized, T-cell exhaustion remains relatively unexplored. Exhaustion, characterized in part by the upregulation of multiple immune checkpoin ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sequestration of T cells in bone marrow in the setting of glioblastoma and other intracranial tumors.

Journal Article Nat Med · September 2018 Featured Publication T cell dysfunction contributes to tumor immune escape in patients with cancer and is particularly severe amidst glioblastoma (GBM). Among other defects, T cell lymphopenia is characteristic, yet often attributed to treatment. We reveal that even treatment- ... Full text Link to item Cite

304 Safety of Laser Ablation for Brain Tumors

Conference Neurosurgery · September 1, 2018 Full text Cite

T-cell Dysfunction in Glioblastoma: Applying a New Framework.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · August 15, 2018 Featured Publication A functional, replete T-cell repertoire is an integral component to adequate immune surveillance and to the initiation and maintenance of productive antitumor immune responses. Glioblastoma (GBM), however, is particularly adept at sabotaging antitumor immu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patterns of Clinical Use of Stereotactic Laser Ablation: Analysis of a Multicenter Prospective Registry.

Journal Article World Neurosurg · August 2018 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Stereotactic laser ablation (SLA), also termed laser interstitial thermal therapy, is a minimally invasive procedure that is increasingly used in neurosurgery. We wished to examine how and whether SLA is changing the landscape of treatment opti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dexamethasone-induced immunosuppression: mechanisms and implications for immunotherapy.

Journal Article J Immunother Cancer · June 11, 2018 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Corticosteroids are routinely utilized to alleviate edema in patients with intracranial lesions and are first-line agents to combat immune-related adverse events (irAEs) that arise with immune checkpoint blockade treatment. However, it is not k ... Full text Link to item Cite

In Reply to Pratx and Kapp.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · June 1, 2018 Featured Publication Full text Link to item Cite

Enhancing Radiation Therapy Through Cherenkov Light-Activated Phototherapy.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · March 1, 2018 PURPOSE: This work investigates a new approach to enhance radiotherapy through a photo therapeutic agent activated by Cherenkov light produced from the megavoltage photon beam. The process is termed Radiotherapy Enhanced with Cherenkov photo-Activation (RE ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Dendritic Cells Enhance Polyfunctionality of Adoptively Transferred T Cells That Target Cytomegalovirus in Glioblastoma.

Journal Article Cancer Res · January 1, 2018 Featured Publication Median survival for glioblastoma (GBM) remains <15 months. Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigens have been identified in GBM but not normal brain, providing an unparalleled opportunity to subvert CMV antigens as tumor-specific immunotherapy targets. A recen ... Full text Link to item Cite

Flow Cytometric Identification of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes from Glioblastoma.

Journal Article Methods Mol Biol · 2018 Featured Publication We describe an isolation method of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from glioblastoma tumors for the purpose of analysis by flow cytometry. This protocol is unique from many others in that the use of a selective lymphocyte isolation procedure, such as ... Full text Link to item Cite

Temozolomide lymphodepletion enhances CAR abundance and correlates with antitumor efficacy against established glioblastoma.

Journal Article Oncoimmunology · 2018 Featured Publication Adoptive transfer of T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) is an effective immunotherapy for B-cell malignancies but has failed in some solid tumors clinically. Intracerebral tumors may pose challenges that are even more significant. In orde ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor in a 65-year-old man presenting with disseminated leptomeningeal disease: A case report and review of the literature.

Journal Article SAGE Open Med Case Rep · 2018 Featured Publication Central nervous system atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors are very rare aggressive tumor of childhood, primarily occurring at age of less than 3 years old. The prognosis of these tumors is very poor, with a reported median survival of 6-12 months in most ca ... Full text Link to item Cite

CD27 stimulation unveils the efficacy of linked class I/II peptide vaccines in poorly immunogenic tumors by orchestrating a coordinated CD4/CD8 T cell response.

Journal Article Oncoimmunology · 2018 Featured Publication Despite their promise, tumor-specific peptide vaccines have limited efficacy. CD27 is a costimulatory molecule expressed on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that is important in immune activation. Here we determine if a novel CD27 agonist antibody (αhCD27) can enhanc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Biopsy of enlarging lesions after stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases frequently reveals radiation necrosis.

Journal Article Neuro Oncol · October 1, 2017 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) offers excellent local control for brain metastases (BM) with low rates of toxicity. Radiation necrosis (RN) may occur after treatment and is challenging to distinguish from local recurrence (LR). We evaluated en ... Full text Link to item Cite

Enhancing Radiation Therapy Through Cherenkov Light-Activated Phototherapy from Clinical Megavoltage Treatment Beams

Conference International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics · October 2017 Full text Cite

Leptomeningeal disease: current diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Journal Article Oncotarget · September 22, 2017 Featured Publication Leptomeningeal disease has become increasingly prevalent as novel therapeutic interventions extend the survival of cancer patients. Although a majority of leptomeningeal spread occurs secondary to breast cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma, a wide variety of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Number of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer brain metastases compared to matched breast primaries.

Conference Journal of Clinical Oncology · May 20, 2017 2049 Background: Breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) is frequent in advanced disease, has limited therapies, and is associated with poor prognosis. Increased stromal tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are prognostic in trip ... Full text Cite

Prospect of rindopepimut in the treatment of glioblastoma.

Journal Article Expert Opin Biol Ther · April 2017 Featured Publication Rindopepimut (CDX-110) is a peptide vaccine that targets epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII), a tumor-specific epitope expressed in the most common and lethal primary malignant neoplasm of the brain - glioblastoma (GBM). Areas covered: ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immune Constitution of Patients with Brain Tumors

Chapter · March 2, 2017 Immune deficiencies in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) are not a new discovery. Researchers have been perplexed and challenged by impairments to immunity in the context of GBM dating back to the 1970s. As immunotherapy has become both more studied and mor ... Full text Cite

The Safety of available immunotherapy for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Journal Article Expert Opin Drug Saf · March 2017 Featured Publication Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain tumor in adults. Current standard of care involves maximal surgical resection combined with adjuvant chemoradiation. Growing support exists for a role of immunotherapy in treating these tumors w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Abstract P5-08-12: HER2 status remains the primary predictor of improved survival in patients with BCBM over the past 2 decades (1996-2015)

Conference Cancer Research · February 15, 2017 AbstractBACKGROUND: Brain metastasis is a complication in advanced breast cancer (ABC) and is associated with poor prognosis. Incidence of breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) is increasing with advances in ... Full text Cite

Single fraction stereotactic radiosurgery for multiple brain metastases.

Journal Article Adv Radiat Oncol · 2017 INTRODUCTION: Due to the neurocognitive side effects of whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is being used with increasing frequency. The use of SRS is expanding for patients with multiple (>4) brain metastases (BM). This s ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Increased expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) in human pituitary tumors.

Journal Article Oncotarget · November 22, 2016 Featured Publication PURPOSE: Subsets of pituitary tumors exhibit an aggressive clinical courses and recur despite surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Because modulation of the immune response through inhibition of T-cell checkpoints has led to durable clinical responses in ... Full text Link to item Cite

T CELL EXHAUSTION IN PATIENTS AND MICE WITH GBM

Conference NEURO-ONCOLOGY · November 1, 2016 Link to item Cite

Single-Fraction Radiosurgery for 4 or More Brain Metastases.

Journal Article Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys · October 1, 2016 Featured Publication Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

369 Chimeric Antigen Receptors Deficient in Lck Signaling Require 4-1BB Costimulation to Expand in Vivo, Resist Regulatory T-Cell Suppression, and Treat Solid Tumors in Immune-Intact Hosts.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · August 2016 Featured Publication INTRODUCTION: Adoptive transfer of T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) is an effective immunotherapy for hematological cancers but requires a rethinking for clinical efficacy against solid tumors, where CARs have largely failed. Lymphodepl ... Full text Link to item Cite

Embracing rejection: Immunologic trends in brain metastasis.

Journal Article Oncoimmunology · July 2016 Featured Publication Brain metastases represent the most common type of brain tumor. These tumors offer a dismal prognosis and significantly impact quality of life for patients. Their capacity for central nervous system (CNS) invasion is dependent upon induced disruptions to t ... Full text Link to item Cite

WE-FG-BRA-01: Cancer Treatment Utilizing Photo-Activation of Psoralen with KV X-Rays.

Journal Article Med Phys · June 2016 PURPOSE: This work investigates X-PACT (X-ray Psoralen Activated Cancer Therapy): a new approach for the treatment of cancer. X-PACT utilizes psoralen, a potent anti-cancer therapeutic with immunogenic anti-cancer potential. Psoralen therapies have been li ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunotherapy for gliomas

Chapter · March 31, 2016 Full text Cite

STK11/LKB1 Deficiency Promotes Neutrophil Recruitment and Proinflammatory Cytokine Production to Suppress T-cell Activity in the Lung Tumor Microenvironment.

Journal Article Cancer Res · March 1, 2016 Featured Publication STK11/LKB1 is among the most commonly inactivated tumor suppressors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially in tumors harboring KRAS mutations. Many oncogenes promote immune escape, undermining the effectiveness of immunotherapies, but it is uncl ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adaptive resistance to therapeutic PD-1 blockade is associated with upregulation of alternative immune checkpoints.

Journal Article Nat Commun · February 17, 2016 Featured Publication Despite compelling antitumour activity of antibodies targeting the programmed death 1 (PD-1): programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) immune checkpoint in lung cancer, resistance to these therapies has increasingly been observed. In this study, to elucidate mech ... Full text Link to item Cite

X-Ray Psoralen Activated Cancer Therapy (X-PACT).

Journal Article PLoS One · 2016 This work investigates X-PACT (X-ray Psoralen Activated Cancer Therapy): a new approach for the treatment of solid cancer. X-PACT utilizes psoralen, a potent anti-cancer therapeutic with current application to proliferative disease and extracorporeal photo ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Pathologic Evaluation of Radiographically Enlarging Lesions After Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Brain Metastases

Conference International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics · November 2015 Full text Cite

Peptide vaccines for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Journal Article J Neurooncol · July 2015 Featured Publication Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an extremely malignant brain tumor for which current therapies do little to remedy. Despite aggressive treatment with surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, tumors inevitably recur as a direct consequence of the infi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Editorial: Turning fluorescence into black and white.

Journal Article J Neurosurg · June 2015 Featured Publication Full text Link to item Cite

Are BiTEs the "missing link" in cancer therapy?

Journal Article Oncoimmunology · June 2015 Featured Publication Conventional treatment for cancer routinely includes surgical resection and some combination of chemotherapy and radiation. These approaches are frequently accompanied by unintended and highly toxic collateral damage to healthy tissues, which are offset by ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunotherapy for malignant glioma.

Journal Article Surg Neurol Int · 2015 Featured Publication Malignant gliomas (MG) are the most common type of primary malignant brain tumor. Most patients diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and malignant glial tumor, die within 12-15 months. Moreover, conventional treatment, which includes surgery ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunotherapy for primary brain tumors: no longer a matter of privilege.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · November 15, 2014 Featured Publication Immunotherapy for cancer continues to gain both momentum and legitimacy as a rational mode of therapy and a vital treatment component in the emerging era of personalized medicine. Gliomas, and their most malignant form, glioblastoma, remain as a particular ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reversal of warfarin associated coagulopathy with 4-factor prothrombin complex concentrate in traumatic brain injury and intracranial hemorrhage.

Journal Article J Clin Neurosci · November 2014 Featured Publication Warfarin-associated intracranial hemorrhage is associated with a high mortality rate. Ongoing coagulopathy increases the likelihood of hematoma expansion and can result in catastrophic hemorrhage if surgery is performed without reversal. The current standa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Antibody-based immunotherapy for malignant glioma.

Journal Article Semin Oncol · August 2014 Featured Publication Conventional therapy for malignant glioma (MG) fails to specifically eliminate tumor cells, resulting in toxicity that limits therapeutic efficacy. In contrast, antibody-based immunotherapy uses the immune system to eliminate tumor cells with exquisite spe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunovirotherapy for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Journal Article Oncoimmunology · January 1, 2014 Featured Publication We have recently described a new murine model of glioblastoma, generated by the implantation of syngeneic glioblastoma stem cells into immunocompetent mice, that recapitulates the salient histopathological and immunological features of the human disease. W ... Full text Link to item Cite

Activation of the PD-1 pathway contributes to immune escape in EGFR-driven lung tumors.

Journal Article Cancer Discov · December 2013 Featured Publication UNLABELLED: The success in lung cancer therapy with programmed death (PD)-1 blockade suggests that immune escape mechanisms contribute to lung tumor pathogenesis. We identified a correlation between EGF receptor (EGFR) pathway activation and a signature of ... Full text Link to item Cite

198 Of Mice and Men

Conference Neurosurgery · August 2013 Full text Cite

Multifaceted oncolytic virus therapy for glioblastoma in an immunocompetent cancer stem cell model.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · July 16, 2013 Featured Publication Glioblastoma (World Health Organization grade IV) is an aggressive adult brain tumor that is inevitably fatal despite surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Treatment failures are attributed to combinations of cellular heterogeneity, including a subpopulati ... Full text Link to item Cite

An update on vaccine therapy and other immunotherapeutic approaches for glioblastoma.

Journal Article Expert Rev Vaccines · June 2013 Featured Publication Outcome for glioblastoma (GBM), the most common primary CNS malignancy, remains poor. The overall survival benefit recently achieved with immunotherapeutics for melanoma and prostate cancer support evaluation of immunotherapies for other challenging cancer ... Full text Link to item Cite

Regulatory T cells move in when gliomas say "I Do".

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · November 15, 2012 Featured Publication Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an enzyme with known immunosuppressive and tolerogenic effects in cancer. Mounting evidence has associated IDO expression with the induction of regulatory T cells (Treg) and malignant progression. IDO inhibition may the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cancer immunoediting in malignant glioma.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · August 2012 Featured Publication Significant work from many laboratories over the last decade in the study of cancer immunology has resulted in the development of the cancer immunoediting hypothesis. This contemporary framework of the naturally arising immune system-tumor interaction is t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sequential immunotherapy by vaccination with GM-CSF-expressing glioma cells and CTLA-4 blockade effectively treats established murine intracranial tumors.

Journal Article J Immunother · June 2012 Featured Publication Malignant glioma is an incurable disease with a relatively short median survival. Several clinical trials have demonstrated that immunotherapy with vaccination is a safe and possibly effective way of prolonging survival. Antibody-based blockade of cytotoxi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Licorice-associated reversible cerebral vasoconstriction with PRES.

Journal Article Neurology · November 23, 2010 Featured Publication Full text Link to item Cite

Renal artery aneurysm.

Journal Article J Emerg Med · June 2010 Full text Link to item Cite

Molecular strategies for the treatment of malignant glioma--genes, viruses, and vaccines.

Journal Article Neurosurg Rev · April 2008 The standard treatment paradigm of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy for malignant gliomas has only a modest effect on survival. It is well emphasized in the literature that despite aggressive multimodal therapy, most patients survive approximately 1 ye ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunotherapy of malignant brain tumors.

Journal Article Immunol Rev · April 2008 Despite aggressive multi-modality therapy including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, the prognosis for patients with malignant primary brain tumors remains very poor. Moreover, the non-specific nature of conventional therapy for brain tumors often res ... Full text Link to item Cite

Systemic CTLA-4 blockade ameliorates glioma-induced changes to the CD4+ T cell compartment without affecting regulatory T-cell function.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · April 1, 2007 Featured Publication PURPOSE: Patients with malignant glioma suffer global compromise of their cellular immunity, characterized by dramatic reductions in CD4(+) T cell numbers and function. We have previously shown that increased regulatory T cell (T(reg)) fractions in these p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Profiling of CD4+, CD8+, and CD4+CD25+CD45RO+FoxP3+ T cells in patients with malignant glioma reveals differential expression of the immunologic transcriptome compared with T cells from healthy volunteers.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · December 15, 2006 PURPOSE: Analyses of T-cell mRNA expression profiles in glioblastoma multiforme has not been previously reported but may help to define and characterize the immunosuppressed phenotype in patients with this type of cancer. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We did microa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Systemic anti-CD25 monoclonal antibody administration safely enhances immunity in murine glioma without eliminating regulatory T cells.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · July 15, 2006 Featured Publication PURPOSE: Elevated proportions of regulatory T cells (T(reg)) are present in patients with a variety of cancers, including malignant glioma, yet recapitulative murine models are wanting. We therefore examined T(regs) in mice bearing malignant glioma and eva ... Full text Link to item Cite

Increased regulatory T-cell fraction amidst a diminished CD4 compartment explains cellular immune defects in patients with malignant glioma.

Journal Article Cancer Res · March 15, 2006 Featured Publication Immunosuppression is frequently associated with malignancy and is particularly severe in patients with malignant glioma. Anergy and counterproductive shifts toward T(H)2 cytokine production are long-recognized T-cell defects in these patients whose etiolog ... Full text Link to item Cite

Expression profiling of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in malignant glioma.

Conference CLINICAL CANCER RESEARCH · December 15, 2005 Link to item Cite

Adoptive immunotherapy for malignant glioma.

Journal Article Cancer J · 2003 Despite remarkable advancements in imaging modalities and treatment options available to patients diagnosed with malignant brain tumors, the prognosis for those with high-grade lesions remains poor. The imprecise mechanisms of currently available treatment ... Full text Link to item Cite

The history, evolution, and clinical use of dendritic cell-based immunization strategies in the therapy of brain tumors.

Journal Article J Neurooncol · 2003 Despite advancements in therapeutic regimens, the prognosis remains poor for patients with malignant gliomas. Specificity has been an elusive goal for current modalities, but immunotherapy has emerged as a potential means of designing more tumor-specific t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Clinical immunotherapy for brain tumors.

Journal Article Neuroimaging Clin N Am · November 2002 As an immunization platform for brain tumors, dendritic cells supply an impressive host of advantages. On the simplest level, they provide the safety and tumor-specificity so wanted by current therapeutic options. Yet, in addition, as the fundamental antig ... Full text Link to item Cite

Viruses in the treatment of brain tumors.

Journal Article Neuroimaging Clin N Am · November 2002 The grave outlook for malignant glioma patients in spite of improvements to current modalities has ushered in new approaches to therapy. Viruses have emerged on the scene and gained attention for their ability to play essentially two roles: first, as vecto ... Full text Link to item Cite