Little progress has been made in terms of curative treatments for adult and pediatric patients with brain cancer. These tumors have infiltrative or invasive growth patterns into the surrounding brain that are difficult to identify and treat, resulting in tumor recurrence. In addition, the blood-brain barrier prevents many therapies delivered systemically from getting into the brain to attack the tumors, and the immune system is often suppressed both within and around brain tumors, reducing the body’s natural mechanisms of fighting the illness.
Mount Sinai is working to improve patient outcomes through the newly formed Brain Cancer Working Group—a collaboration between The Friedman Brain Institute and The Tisch Cancer Institute, as well as The Black Family Stem Cell Institute, the Precision Immunology Institute, and the departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Neuroscience, Oncological Sciences, Pediatrics, and Pathology. Read about their discoveries.