The Preston Robert Tisch
 Brain Tumor Center
 Celebrates its 75th Anniversary


.....A History of Innovation, Commitment and Hope

Dr. Barnes Woodhall arrived at Duke in 1937, and became the 
Chief of Neurosurgery and second Dean and Chancellor of the
 Duke University School of Medicine.

For 75 years, the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center has been a destination for patients seeking the most advanced treatments, often with therapies not available anywhere else. Our patients are the reason we strive to deliver hope every day and in the years to come. 

Read the complete 75 year history and accomplishments of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.

Targeting Cancer with Genetically Engineered Poliovirus (PVS-RIPO)

   Matthias Gromeier, MD

A Brief Background About PVS-RIPO. 
PVS-RIPO is a genetically engineered poliovirus that is being investigated as a new anti-cancer agent at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke. The idea of targeting cancer with viruses has been around for at least 100 years. However, valid strategies of using ‘oncolytic’ (cancer-fighting) viruses emerged only recently. This is mostly due to technological advances in genetic engineering of viruses.

To work against cancers in patients, oncolytic viruses must target cancer cells for infection and they must kill them. At the same time, they must be safe. Accomplishing this is very difficult scientifically and only very few viruses are suitable as cancer-fighting agents in the clinic. We achieved this feat by genetic engineering to remove poliovirus’ inherent disease-causing ability (a piece of genetic code of a cold-causing rhinovirus was spliced into the poliovirus genome). PVS-RIPO naturally infects almost all cancer cells, because the receptor for poliovirus (which is used for cell entry) is abnormally present on most tumor cells. PVS-RIPO kills cancer cells, but not normal cells, because its ability to grow (and kill) depends on biochemical abnormalities only present in cancer cells. Safety testing in non-human primates and human patients has shown no nerve cell killing, no ability to cause poliomyelitis, and no ability of PVS-RIPO to change back to wild type poliovirus that can cause poliomyelitis.

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Immortality Gene Mutation Identifies Brain Tumors and Other Cancers.

  Hai Yan, MD, PhD

Newly identified mutations in a gene that makes cells immortal appear to play a pivotal role in three of the most common types of brain tumors, as well as cancers of the liver, tongue and urinary tract, according to research led by Duke Cancer Institute.
 
The finding, published Monday, March 18, 2013, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides a long-sought answer to how some malignant cells are able to proliferate, while normal cells peter out and die.

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Basic and
Clinical Research
Program

Pediatric Brain Tumor
Foundation Institute
at Duke