Researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have joined a regional effort to determine why the Southeast is a "hot spot" for deadly brain cancers.

With the help of a five-year, $4.2 million grant awarded by the National Cancer Institute this spring, Vanderbilt-Ingram and four other cancer centers will try to identify genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to the region's relatively high incidence of glioma.

It’s a simple idea, they say, but a “little more difficult” to carry out. A chemist and a neurosurgeon have joined forces to find a way to “light up” brain cancer. Researchers have created a compound that illuminates brain cancer, making it easier to remove. Barb Cramer has the story...

The Childhood Cancer Program at Children's Hospital has started a childhood cancer survivorship program and clinic to follow up on former patients, do health screenings and make sure patients are aware of any additional future health concerns. According to the National Cancer Institute, side effects of cancer treatment called “late effects” can appear months or years after treatment has ended, and can include physical or mental problems and second cancers.

Dr. Moneeb Ehtesham was appointed as Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Cancer Biology and joins the Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Center. Dr. Ehtesham will direct the research effort in the Neurosurgical Oncology Research Laboratory at Vanderbilt. 

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators are shedding new light on one of the factors that controls the swift spread of glioblastoma multiforme, a rare and very aggressive brain tumor.

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers have uncovered a clue to explain the invasive nature of an aggressive kind of brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme, or gliomas, center officials announced Tuesday.

Glioblastoma multiforme is the medical name given to a very rare brain tumor that doctors often say is incurable.
In the past, patients with the aggressive tumor were given little chance at any length of survival, but now, experts at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center say they've uncovered what could lead to a promising new way to target and fight glioblastomas.

 The most common form of primary brain tumors — glioma, affecting about 25,000 Americans each year — poses a dilemma for doctors and patients trying to make decisions about treatment.

The National Science Foundation has thrown its support behind an innovative interdisciplinary collaboration at Vanderbilt to develop a fluorescent “tag” that can light up stray brain cancer cells so they can be better seen and removed during surgery.

The Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Center is devoted exclusively to the treatment of adults and children with brain and spinal cord tumors.  We are a comprehensive center – providing leading edge, compassionate care for patients with brain tumors and their families.