Most of medicine, as practiced today, can be traced back to the advances made since the 1940s. The development of antibiotics, a vaccine for polio, organ transplants, insulin, and CT and MRI scans have radically improved the ability of medicine to impact human disease. We are now on the verge of a medical revolution. The human genome, the 100,000 genes encoded by 3 billion chemical pairs in our DNA, has been decoded, opening up exciting, new opportunities for innovative treatments. Breakthroughs like this are providing us with unparalleled opportunities to develop effective treatments for cancer and many other diseases. Recent discoveries by scientists at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have generated excitement and hope for control of diseases that can devastate the body's most vital organ - the brain.

It is estimated that one out of three people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. About 500,000 people die from cancer in the United States each year. For reasons that remain unexplained, even when analysis corrects for an aging population and improved diagnostic ability, the incidence of brain tumors continues to increase. More alarming is the rise in brain tumors in children. Brain tumors are now the leading cause of death from cancer in children. At the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute (MDNSI), major clinical and research efforts are underway to develop an effective treatment for brain tumors. Important advances have already been made and novel clinical protocols are in progress. However, we plan to expand our research efforts to accelerate the discoveries from our laboratories and the translation of these discoveries to new treatments.

• Breaking the Blood-Brain Tumor Barrier, Principal Investigators, Keith L. Black, MD and Yan Shu, MD, PhD
• Discovering and Correcting Cancer-Related Defects of the Immune System, Principal Investigator, Christopher Wheeler, PhD
• Initiating Anti-Tumor Immune Responses by Dendritic Cell Vaccination -- Glioblastoma Multiforme
• Gene Therapy
• Neural Stem Cells, Principal Investigator, Dwain Morris-Irvin, PhD, MPH
• Molecular Oncology, Principal Investigator, Julia Ljubimova, MD, PhD
• Cancer Vaccine Ad (pdf*)
• Nanomedicine Treatment for Brain Tumors

For Windows Media Player, please click the following link: Dendritic Cell Vaccine Animation

The MDNSI also works closely with biophotonics researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, developing more effective methods to diagnose and demarcate tumors and to prevent stroke. For more information, please visit Cedars-Sinai's Biophotonics Research and Technology Development website.

For an appointment, a second opinion or more information, please call 1-800-CEDARS-1 (1-800-233-2771) or e-mail us.