The goal of Hermelin Brain Tumor Center scientists is to fast-track research discoveries into safe and effective therapies. We collaborate with scientists around the world in an effort to continually design and improve therapies that will benefit patients everywhere. 

Henry Ford's brain tumor research team, one of the largest in the country, conducts laboratory research, preclinical research, translational research, and clinical research. These efforts focus on defining how brain tumors develop and grow, as well as designing new therapies to attack tumor cells, to stop their development, and to destroy them while preserving healthy cells. Research also includes drug development and new delivery systems.

The Hermelin Brain Tumor Center offers access to new brain tumor therapies through more than 25 clinical trials and research programs, and is the only site in Michigan offering these therapies through the Adult Brain Tumor Consortium (ABTC). We were among the first centers to offer Avastin and Temodar through clinical trial. These drugs continue to undergo study at the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center, and are revealing remarkable signs as the trials progress and take our understanding about personalized medicine to the next level.  

Avastin
Clinical neuro-oncologist Tom Mikkelsen, M.D., and his team of researchers have published their recent success in a clinical trial involving Avastin® (bevacizumab), an anti-cancer drug treatment recently proven to be active against recurrent malignant gliomas.

Avastin® targets vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which promotes blood vessels in gliomas and other cancers. Avastin® prevents or reduces the formation of blood vessels, thereby preventing or reducing endothelial cell proliferation and metatstatic disease progression. These clinical trials have resulted in FDA approval for Avastin use in recurrent glioblastoma. Of 15 medical facilities around the country, Henry Ford had the third highest number of patients successfully treated with Avastin®.

We also have a number of projects using advanced neuroimaging to measure the benefits of new drugs. In one study, Henry Ford researchers retrospectively assessed recurrence patterns in 160 patients with recurrent malignant gliomas who received Avastin® along with various chemotherapy regimens for a year and a half. 

Together, these studies confirm Avastin's safety and potential in glioma therapy, and highlight potential changes in radiographic tumor-recurrence patterns.

Temodar
The Hermelin Brain Tumor Center routinely uses genetic studies to identify patients who are most sensitive to Temodar® (temozolomide), so they can receive the drug right away.

Previously, everyone received it, even though we didn't know what the outcome would be. Now we can look at new strategies sooner for those with tumor resistance.

International studies have determined that the combination of Temodar with radiation improves the survival rate of newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients by approximately 30 percent.

However, overall only 40 percent of GBM patients respond to Temodar. Because the prognosis for GBM doesn't provide time for trial-and-error measures, Henry Ford doctors conduct genetic studies to identify GBM patients who will respond best to the newly confirmed best standard of care using Temodar plus radiation therapy.

These studies analyze whether a molecular "switch" on the gene known as MGMT is active or inactive. MGMT is a DNA repair marker that allows cells damaged by cancer to repair themselves. Unfortunately, this built-in ability to repair cells also makes the cells resistant to the beneficial effects of radiation and chemotherapy. Research has shown that patients whose MGMT switch is "off" have a significantly greater chance of responding positively to a course of Temodar and radiation. In fact, this is the subgroup of GBM patients who often survive three or four years.