Biomedical Frontiers: Winter 1994, Vol.1, No.2
Severing a Brain Tumor's Lifeline

To continue to expand, tumors make proteins that stimulate blood vessel formation. Agents that inhibit the action of these proteins, known as angiogenesis factors, could constrain tumor growth and treat the cancer.

Dr. Jeffrey Bruce, assistant professor of neurological surgery and pathology, studies one angiogenesis factor, VEGF--vascular endothelial growth factor or vascular permeability factor--in brain tumors with hopes to target it for treatment purposes. VEGF makes blood vessels leaky and may cause fluid build-up at brain tumor sites, thus contributing to a tumor's neurological symptoms.

In a pilot study funded by a CPMC clinical trials grant, Dr. Bruce is attempting to correlate VEGF levels with angiogenesis. He is examining blood vessel growth in human brain tumors with an MRI, and is measuring VEGF mRNA levels with Northern Blots. Although this initial investigation is descriptive, it could turn out that VEGF is a prognostic indicator of brain tumors--certain levels may be associated with survival and better treatment response.

Dr. Bruce is also developing an animal model of brain tumors that will compare VEGF expression, angiogenesis, and tumor growth. In these animals he will begin to test tumor growth inhibitory agents, such as suramin, a polyanion used to treat prostate cancer (See Frontiers, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 9), phosphorothioates, and commercially available angiogenesis inhibitors.

CPMC does more than 400 brain tumor operations a year, one of the top three such practices in the country. The brain tumor bank has 1,000 primary tumors in its depository.