AANS Neurosurgeon Newsline

Scientists say they have discovered a potential new target for immunotherapy of malignant brain tumors, which so far have resisted the ground-breaking cancer treatment based on harnessing the body’s immune system. The discovery emerged from laboratory experiments and has no immediate implications for treating patients. Scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard...

In a study of mice, researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a new approach that combines an anti-psychotic drug, a statin used to lower high cholesterol levels, and radiation to improve the overall survival in mice with glioblastoma. Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest and most difficult-to-treat brain tumors. Researchers found the triple combination extended...

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and their colleagues have published a detailed account of SJMB03, a clinical trial for pediatric patients with medulloblastoma. Additionally, they report results of the largest analysis of matched primary and relapsed medulloblastoma tumors to date. In both the clinic and the lab, results underscore the need for integrated molecular assessment of these tumors. Clinical...

Getting around without the need to concentrate on every step is something most of us can take for granted because our inner ears drive reflexes that make maintaining balance automatic. However, for about 1.8 million adults worldwide with bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH) — loss of the inner ears’ sense of balance — walking requires constant attention to avoid a...

Glioblastoma is among the most aggressive and devastating of cancers. While rare compared with other cancers, it’s the most common type of brain cancer. Even with intensive therapy, relatively few patients survive longer than two years after diagnosis, and fewer than 10% of patients survive beyond five years. Despite extensive studies focused on genomic features of glioblastoma, relatively little...

Someone has a stroke every 40 seconds in the U.S., resulting in death every 4 minutes. Stroke is the leading cause of disability from a medical condition. When it happens, blood clots or bleeds kill a part of the brain – it goes dark – and can no longer control part of the body. People stop being able to walk,...

You might remember you ate cereal for breakfast but forget the color of the bowl. Or recall watching your partner put the milk away but can't remember on which shelf. A new Northwestern Medicine study improved memory of complex, realistic events similar to these by applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the brain network responsible for memory. The authors then...

As COVID cases rise, physically distancing yourself from other people has never been more important. Now a new UCLA study reveals how your brain navigates places and monitors someone else in the same location. The findings suggest that our brains generate a common code to mark where other people are in relation to ourselves. “We studied how our brain reacts when...

For patients receiving spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for chronic pain, integration with an immersive virtual reality (VR) system – allowing patients to see as well as feel the effects of electrical stimulation on a virtual image of their own body – can enhance the pain-relieving effectiveness of SCS, reports a study. The integrated SCS-VR approach improves pain control over SCS...

Researchers are investigating whether a human umbilical cord patch placed on the spina bifida defect could improve healing after minimally invasive fetoscopic surgery in a clinical trial at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). Patients are being enrolled at The Fetal Center affiliated with Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, and UT Physicians. The...