The worlds first freestanding state-of-the-art brain tumor research facility will be dedicated this fall in Montreal. The new Can$26 million (about US $18 million) Montreal Brain Tumour Research Centre, an integral part of McGill Universitys Montreal Neurological Institute and the 135-bed Montreal Neurological Hospital, will concentrate on brain tumor diagnosis, treatment, and research.
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The group has already established an Internet-based "Canadian Brain Tumour Network" with three components: a section for information on clinical trials, one for brain tumor patient support and advocacy, and a forum to encourage collaboration among scientists across Canada conducting brain tumor research. Murphy said the Network will be expanding to become more international in scope.
With a total combined staff of more than 700 including affiliated researchers, the MNI and MNH are international referral centers recording 1,500 inpatient and 22,000 ambulatory visits annually. MNI researchers have pioneered and perfected the use of several state-of-the-art technologies including electroencephalography (EEG) and three-dimensional brain imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography.
Although in the past many patients were referred by U.S. physicians and surgeons, Murphy said that because of the growth of health maintenance organizations along with the worldwide diffusion of surgical techniques pioneered at the MNI/MNH, U.S. referrals have declined somewhat. However, he expects the BTRC to help reverse this trend.
The new facility is headed by neuroscientist David Kaplan, Ph.D., previously of the U.S. National Cancer Institutes Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center, who joined the staff of MNI in 1996. Kaplan is among those credited with uncovering the role of Trk receptors in the growth and proliferation of cancer cells, and his primary interest has been in two types of brain cancers primarily affecting children: medulloblastoma and neuroblastoma.
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The approximately 19,000 square-foot, three-story Centre houses research laboratories, a support library, and a state-of-the-art conference center/communications hub offering international video teleconferencing. In addition, a building nearby has been purchased to provide inexpensive housing for families of BTRC patients.
As a result of a capital campaign to launch construction of the BTRC, more than $9 million in private donations has been raised from Canadian foundations, banks, energy concerns, and other sources. Approximately $3 million has been contributed by the Molson Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the large Canadian beer producer.
While other institutions have established brain tumor research unitssuch as the Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at Torontos Hospital for Sick Children and a unit at the University of California-San Francisconone are freestanding facilities, Murphy said.
A unique hallmark of the new facility is its emphasis on collaborative and "translational" research. The BTRC will provide an integrated, multidisciplinary team approach to research and treatment with an emphasis on more quickly providing laboratory advances to patients.
The BTRC will include four biotechnologists to study brain cell growth and regulation, a neurosurgeon-researcher who is an expert in tumor removal, a neuro-oncologist to bridge laboratory research and patient care, a neuropathologist to initiate therapies and monitor patient progress, and a brain-imaging physicist to conduct research on techniques to enhance new imaging technologies for surgery.
Tumor Genetics
Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to aid in analyzing neurochemical characteristics of brain tumors, MNI researchers have developed methods for distinguishing between those that are malignant versus those that are benign with such a high degree of precision that invasive surgical biopsies can often be avoided.
By further refining the use of MRS, the researchers hope to develop better diagnostic techniques that may eventually altogether eliminate the need for biopsies. Meanwhile, Kaplan and his BTRC team are investigating "signaling genes" that may have applications in the development of gene therapies for all brain tumors but especially the most deadly malignant tumors, glioblastomas.
Locating tumors through refined imaging techniques as well as more successfully treating tumors through drug and radiation therapy is expected to help limit, reduce, and perhaps eliminate the risks of damaging healthy brain tissue sometimes associated with brain surgery required in both malignant and nonmalignant tumors.
The newest addition to the BTRC team, Canadian neurosurgeon and researcher Rolando Del Maestro, M.D., Ph.D., will lead the neurosurgery component toward integrated, translational, individualized treatment this fall when he will leave his current position at the University of Western Ontario.
"We hope to do multiple studies of each brain tumor and from those studies develop individualized treatments based on specific abnormalities," Del Maestro said.
Del Maestro said one of his first goals is to develop a comprehensive brain tumor tissue bank and registry that will eventually collaborate with hospitals and centers throughout North America. He hopes that tissue studies may lead to developing screening technologies that incorporate knowledge of multiple genes and their products so that tumors found to be heterogeneous can be more effectively treated with tailored therapies.
Neuroanatomy Effort
Contributing to that effort will be MNIs leading role in a competitive $22 million contract to develop the first comprehensive pediatric neuroanatomy atlas. The 6-year project, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and won by MNI in December, will involve coordinating, compiling, and analyzing data from seven U.S. research centers that collect magnetic resonance images from children under the age of 18. The effort may be extended to follow this cohort into adulthood.
MNI researchers will complete the project in conjunction with Neurovision Sciences Ltd., a joint research endeavor between MNI and Siemens Canada Ltd. The atlas is expected to be useful in following the long-term development of neurological disorders as well as for investigating associations between brain development and behavior.
Collaborating centers include Bostons Childrens Hospital, the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, Washington University in St. Louis, University of California-Los Angeles and University of California-Irvine, Childrens Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, and Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.
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