Having the right tools to offer patients with brain tumors an optimal treatment can greatly preserve their qualities of life. That is why the Brain Tumor Treatment and Research Center at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center is continually in search of new ways to make treatment easier and more efficacious for patients.
What’s New
In late 2017, UMGCCC updated its stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) capabilities through an investment in the Varian Edge™, a linear accelerator specifically designed for SRS. With a high level of synchronization between its optical surface monitoring system, beam-shaping 120-leaf collimator, and dose delivery technologies, it permits frameless SRS and shorter treatment times. It is just one of several advanced radiation oncology technologies – including proton therapy – available at the University of Maryland for treating brain lesions.
What’s on the Horizon
Glioblastoma remains a cancer with few treatment breakthroughs, and the blood-brain barrier poses a challenge to adjuvant chemotherapy, making recurrence a forgone conclusion. The Brain Tumor Treatment and Research Center has been on the forefront of exploring ways to breach the blood brain barrier to eventually deliver systemic therapies, including the use of focused ultrasound and microbubbles to temporarily disrupt the barrier or by encasing agents in nanoparticles small enough to permeate the barrier.
Our Experience
Some of the University of Maryland’s most accomplished neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists and medical oncologists comprise the multidisciplinary care team of the Brain Tumor Treatment and Research Center. A relatively high percentage of patients at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center have cancers of the brain and central nervous system, which represented 5.5 percent of all analytic cases in 2016 compared to making up just 1.4 percent of cancers in Maryland from 2010-14.
Related Content
Articles about University of Maryland research into radiotherapy for CNS cancers:
Badiyan SN, Regine WF, Mehta M. Stereotactic radiosurgery for treatment of brain metastases. J Oncol Pract. 2016 Aug;(12)8:703-12.
Weber DC, Malyapa R, Albertini F, Bolsi A, Kliebsch U, Walser M, Pica A, Combescure C, Lomax AJ, Schneider R. Long term outcomes of patients with skull-base low-grade chondrosarcoma and chordoma patients treated with pencil beam scanning proton therapy. Radiother Oncol. 2016 Jul;120(1):169-74.
Hanna A, Boggs DH, Kwok Y, Simard M, Regine WF, Mehta M. What predicts early volumetric edema increase following stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases? J Neurooncol. 2016 April;127(2):303-11.
Shen X, Andrews DW, Sergott RC, Evans JJ, Curran WJ, Machtay M, Fragoso R, Eldredge H, Champ CE, Witek M, Mishra MV, Dicker AP, Werner-Wasik M. Fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy improves cranial neuropathies in patients with skull base meningiomas: a retrospective cohort study. Radiat Oncol. 2012 Dec 28;7:225.
Articles about University of Maryland’s research into nanoparticle delivery of therapeutic agents to brain cancer tumor cells:
Hersh DS, Anastasiadis P, Mohammadabadi A, Nguyen BA, Guo S, Winkles JA, Kim AJ, Gullapalli R, Keller A, Frenkel V, Woodworth GF. MR-guided transcranial focused ultrasound safely enhances interstitial dispersion of large polymeric nanoparticles in the living brain. PLoS One. 2018 Feb 7;13(2):e1092240.
Wadajkar AS, Dancy JG, Roberts NB, Connolly NP, Strickland DK, Winkles JA, Woodworth GF, Kim AJ. Decreased non-specific adhesivity, receptor targeted (DART) nanoparticles exhibit improved dispersion, cellular uptake, and tumor retention in invasive gliomas. J Control Release. 2017 Dec;267:144-153.
Wadajkar AS, Dancy JG, Hersh DS, Anastasiadis P, Tran NL, Woodworth GF, Winkles JA, Kim AJ. Tumor-targeted nanotherapeutics: overcoming treatment barriers for glioblastoma. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol. 2017 July;9(4).
Dancy JG, Wadajkar AS, Schneider CS, Mauban JRH, Goloubeva OG, Woodworth GF, Winkles JA, Kim AJ. Non-specific binding and steric hindrance thresholds for penetration of particulate drug carriers within tumor tissue. J Control Release. 2016 Sep 28;238:139-148.
Hersh DS, Wadajkar AS, Roberts NB, Perez JG, Connolly NP, Frenkel V, Winkles JA, Woodworth GF, Kim AJ. Evolving drug delivery strategies to overcome the blood brain barrier. Curr Pharm Des. 2016:22(9):1177-1193.
Related People
Neurosurgeons
Radiation Oncologists
William F. Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO
Medical Oncologists
