Patient Receives World's 1st Selective Intraarterial Delivery of Chemotherapies Directly into a Brain Stem Tumor
NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Technique Opens Blood-Brain Barrier to Deliver High Dose Chemotherapy to Brain Stem Tumors
May Offer Treatment to Children with Incurable Brain Tumors
Neurosurgeons from NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center performed the world's first intraarterial cerebral infusion directly into a patient's brain stem tumor. Dr. John Boockvar and Dr. Howard Riina, the two co-principal authors of the study, utilized two drugs Bevacizumab, (Genentech, Roche) and Cetuximab (Imclone, Bristol Meyers Squibb) that target unique proteins expressed on the surface of the tumor. The technique employed new endovascular balloons that were able to "trap" the chemotherapy in the brain stem, an area where drugs have been notoriously hard to delivery. This novel technique exposes the cancer to higher doses of the drug therapy, while sparing the patient common side effects of receiving the drug intravenously (IV) or throughout their body. The procedure's technical accomplishment is reported in the March 2010 issue of Journal of Interventional Neuroradiology. This method of drug delivery may have important implications in the treatment of both adult and pediatric brainstem gliomas. Pediatric brain stem gliomas are one of the commonest solid cancers in children and currently there is no effective treatment. This new treatment may allow for newer agents to be effectively delivered to these tumors and spare children IV chemotherapy and radiation.
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