Brain tumors are diagnosed in more than 20,000 Americans annually. The most malignant neoplasm, glioblastoma, is also the most common. Similarly, brain tumors constitute the second most common neoplasm in children of which the medulloblastoma is the most common. My research is dedicated to bringing molecular advances involved in the etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of brain tumors to clinical application. Chromosomal abnormalities involving chromosome 7p and 10q have been shown to identify an aggressive variant of glioblastoma. Amplification of oncogenes, particularly EGFR and its variant, EGFRvIII, have also been studied in this neoplasm in order to identify tumors that may be responsive to inhibitors of the EGFR signal transduction pathway. The DNA repair system, methylguanine methyltransferase, is being actively investigated for its role in mediating resistance to alkylating chemotherapy in these tumors. By providing morphological support to the chemotherapeutic trials of Drs. Darell Bigner, Henry Friedman, Jeremy Rich, and John Sampson, new drugs and vaccines are being investigated in translational studies which are rapidly bringing laboratory discoveries to the bedside.
1. Russell and Rubinstein's Pathology of Tumors of the Nervous System. A Hodder Arnold Publication: London, 2006
2. McLendon, RE; Bigner, DD; Bigner, SH; Provenzale, JM. Pathology of Tumors of the Nervous System. Edward Arnold: London, 2000
3. McLendon, R.E., and Bigner, D.D.: Immunohistochemistry of the Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein: Basic and Applied Considerations. Brain Pathol. 4:221 228, 1994.
4. McLendon, R.E., Archer, G.E., Garg, P.K., Bigner, D.D., and Zalutsky, M.R.: Radiotoxicity of systemically administered [211At]astatide in B6C3F1 and BALB/c (nu/nu) mice: a long term survival study with histologic analysis. Int. J. Rad. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 35:69-80, 1996.
5. McLendon, R.E., Fung, K. M., Bentley, R.C., Rasheed, B.K.A., Trojanowski, J.Q., Bigner, S.H., Bigner, D.D., and Friedman, H.S.: Production and characterization of two childhood ependymoma xenografts. J. Neuropathol Exp Neurol 55:540-548, 1996.
