News & Events

National Meeting

The BBB Program conducts an internationally acclaimed annual meeting of leading clinical and preclinical experts in brain tumors and the blood-brain barrier. The 18th annual meeting will be held March 22-24, 2012 at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington, in collaboration with the International Brain Barriers Society.

News Release

A $5 million grant from the Walter S. and Lucienne Driskill Foundation will advance OHSU's efforts to develop new, nonsurgical treatments for malignant brain tumors and to share its unique knowledge with the international medical community.  The Chicago based Driskill Foundation's grant supports OHSU's Neuro-Oncology and Blood-Brain Barrier Program, led by neuro-oncologist Edward A. Neuwelt, M.D.

 

Upcoming BBB presentations

• SBC -- Spring Brain Conference, March 16-19, 2011, Tucson, AZ        
• AACR -- American Association for Cancer Research, April 2-6, 2011, Orlando, FL
• ASCO -- American Society for Clinical Oncology, June 3-7, 2011, Chicago, IL 
• CNS -- Congress of Neurological Surgeons, October 1-6, 2011, Washington DC
• SNO -- Society for Neuro-Oncology, November 17-20, 2011, Garden Grove, CA 

 

Recent Scientific Publications

For a list of selected publications from Dr. Neuwelt and the BBB Program, please see the Publications page.

Muldoon LL, Gahramanov S, Li X, Marshall DJ, Kraemer DF, Neuwelt EA. Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging assessment of vascular targeting agent effects in rat intracerebral tumor models. Neuro Oncol 13(1): 51-60, 2011.

We used serial dynamic contrast enhanced MRI at 12 Tesla to evaluate the effects of monoclonal antibodies targeting brain tumor vasculature: α(V)-integrins (intetumumab; CNTO 95) vs vascular endothelial growth factor (bevacizumab; Avastin) in rats with intracerebral tumor model. Intetumumab and bevacizumab had diametrically opposite effects on rat brain tumor vasculature: Targeting α(V)-integrins increased tumor vascular permeability and blood volume, whereas bevacizumab decreased both measures. These findings have implications for chemotherapy delivery and antitumor efficacy.

 

Dosa E, Guillaume DJ, Haluska M, Lacy CA, Hamilton BE, Njus JM, Rooney WD, Kraemer DF, Muldoon LL, Neuwelt EA. Magnetic resonance imaging of intracranial tumors: intra-patient comparison of gadoteridol and ferumoxytol. Neuro Oncol. 2010; in press. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 21163809.

This study compared gadoteridol with ferumoxytol for contrast-enhanced and perfusion-weighted MRI of intracranial tumors. Ferumoxytol provides important information about tumor biology that complements gadoteridol imaging. Relative cerebral blood volume measurements indicate areas of tumor undergoing rapid growth, whereas T2 scans at 24-hours mark the presence of inflammatory cells. Both of these functions provide useful information about tumor response to treatment.

 

Gahramanov S, Raslan A, Muldoon LL, Hamilton BE, Rooney WD, Varallyay CG, Njus JM, Haluska M, Neuwelt EA. Potential for differentiation of pseudoprogression from true tumor progression with dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging using ferumoxytol vs. gadoteridol: A pilot study. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2010 in press. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20395065.

We evaluated dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DSC-MRI) using gadoteridol in comparison to the iron oxide nanoparticle blood pool agent, ferumoxytol in patients with glioblastoma multiforme who received standard radiochemotherapy. Lesions demonstrating increased enhancement on T1-weighted MRI coupled with low ferumoxytol rCBV, are likely exhibiting pseudoprogression, while high rCBV with ferumoxytol is a better marker than gadoteridol for determining active tumor. Ferumoxytol was superior to gadoteridol for differentiating pseudoprogression from true tumor progression.

 

Angelov L, Doolittle N, Kraemer D, Siegal T, Barnett G, Peereboom D, Stevens G, McGregor J, Jahnke K, Lacy D, Hedrick N, Shalom E, Ference S, Bell S, Sorenson L, Tyson R, Haluska M, Neuwelt E.  Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption and Intra-Arterial Methotrexate-Based Therapy for Newly Diagnosed Primary CNS Lymphoma:  A Multi-Institutional Experience. J Clin Oncol 27:3503-3509, 2009.

This report summarizes the multi-institutional experience of 149 newly diagnosed patients with primary CNS lymphoma treated with osmotic blood-brain barrier disruption (BBBD) and intra-arterial (IA) methotrexate at four institutions from 1982 to 2005.  This series of patients treated over a 23-year period demonstrates that BBBD/IA methotrexate-based chemotherapy results in successful and durable tumor control and outcomes that are comparable or superior to other primary CNS lymphoma treatment regimens.