Inside Stanford Medicine - September 26th, 2011

Sanjiv "Sam" Gambhir, MD, PhD, professor and chair of radiology, has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation to develop new molecular-imaging agents for a variety of scanning technologies (PET, MRI and MRS) in order to image, at the molecular level, brain tumors of the variety known as glioblastoma multiforme.

The grant also underwrites the development of these tools for use in monitoring cell-delivery therapies, and for both predicting and monitoring — in real time — patients’ response to therapeutic interventions.

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer among adults. Fewer than one in 10 patients survive for more than two years after the condition is diagnosed. While tumors can be excised by brain surgery, any residual cancer cells may be sufficient to cause the tumor’s return. At the same time, surgeons must be extremely careful to leave as much healthy brain tissue intact as possible.

Among the agents to be developed are those suitable for measuring tumor-cell proliferation, cell death, blood-vessel development within tumors and various cell-surface receptors characteristic of glioblastoma tumors. The most promising of prospective new agents, as determined in animal studies, will be submitted for approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration for use in early clinical trials, also funded at least in part by the Ivy Foundation grant.

The Phoenix-based Ivy Foundation funds research to develop better diagnostics and treatments aimed at improving the life expectancy of patients with brain cancer and eventually curing the disease.

Gambhir is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor in Cancer Research and director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford. He also is director of the Canary Center at Stanford for Early Cancer Detection and a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT INSIDE STANFORD MEDICINE