Newswise — Eric Holland, MD, PhD, describes himself as a “hybrid,” a rare combination of neurosurgeon and molecular biology researcher. Director of the Human Biology Division at Fred Hutch, he is an internationally renowned brain cancer surgeon and researcher, specializing in the research and treatment of glioblastoma—the most common brain cancer in adults—and metastatic brain tumors.
Working at the intersection of multiple disciplines, Holland strives to understand the molecular basis of brain tumors and develop new approaches to their treatment.
VIDEO: Dr. Eric Holland explains how Fred Hutch researchers are mining vast amounts of data in order to discover meaningful information that’s being used against cancer.
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Hans-Peter Kiem, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist and a member of Fred Hutch's Clinical Research Division, specializing in stem cell and bone marrow transplantation. He is principal investigator on an NCI study aimed at very high-risk glioblastoma patients whose tumors produce a particular protein, which makes the tumor cells resistant to chemotherapy. Dr. Kiem’s lab has developed ways to take blood and marrow stem cells, bring them back to the laboratory, and engineer them so patients can get very powerful chemotherapy.
While most patients diagnosed with glioblastoma survive about 15 months, a total of 10 patients have participated in this clinical trial and eight of them have survived longer than that. The first patient, who enrolled in the study in 2009, survived more than six years after diagnosis. His story is here.
More information on this NCI study is here: “Cells in Treating Patients With Malignant Gliomas” (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00669669)
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Jim Olson, MD, PhD, is a pediatric a researcher and pediatric oncologist with appointments at Fred Hutch, the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
His scientific and medical career has been devoted primarily to discovering and advancing new therapies for children with brain cancer. His team developed “Tumor Paint," an experimental scorpion-derived peptide designed to deliver fluorescent molecules to cancer, causing the cancer to "light up," thereby making it easier for surgeons to distinguish between tumor tissue and healthy tissue. Tumor Paint is currently in clinical trials. Dr. Olson’s lab’s work has led to over 10 human clinical trials, of which he leads a Phase III Children’s Oncology Group trial in 250 institutions.
VIDEO: TedX Seattle Presentation by Dr. Olson
VIDEO: PopTech “Tumor Paint”
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