Join us for An Evening of Beautiful Music: Benefit Gala for the Gruson Fund on November 16, 2009

Click here for concert schedule and to order tickets.

2009/10 Salon Sanctuary Concerts sponsored by the Gruson Fund

The Salon/Sanctuary series offers an opportunity to hear early music in the kinds of spaces for which it was intended. Sacred music is presented in the intimate Church of the Epiphany, while salon repertoire will be heard in the 1799 Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium at the Mount Vernon House and Museum. In addition to the five concerts of the Salon/Sanctuary series, the elegant townhouse of the Kosciuszko Foundation will be the setting for a gala benefit featuring music for royal entertainment.

Click here for concert schedule and to order tickets.

NYU Cancer Institute 6th Annual Retreat September 25, 2009

Please join the members of the NYU Cancer Institute for our 6th Annual Scientific Retreat, which highlights accomplishments of NYUCI investigators and fosters collaborations between basic and clinical investigators and clinicians. As in past years, the program themes will transcend traditional Cancer Institute programs to highlight shared interests and aims. This year's retreat will be held here in the city at the New York Academy of Medicine to provide for greater interaction time among Cancer Institute investigators. This year’s keynote speaker will be Nicholas Restifo, MD from the NCI.
New York Academy of Medicine 1216 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10029 http://www.nyam.org

An Evening of Beautiful Music on October 18, 2008

Join us for an Evening of Beautiful Music on October 18, 2008. Featuring Bach sonatas performed by harpsichordist Andrew Appel and violinist Ryan Brown, followed by an all-Mozart program with sopranos Jessica Gould and Bridget Best, mezzo Virginia Warnken, tenor Rufus Muller, and bass Branch Fields accompanied by the orchestra of the Clarion Music Society under the direction of maestro Steven Fox. Featured speaker: Dr. Susan C. Pannullo, Director of Neuro-Oncology at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center

Michael Gruson Lectureships in Neuro-Oncology

Dr. Manfred Westphal will speak at Grand Rounds to be held on May 5

Dr. Manfred Westphal is the invited speaker for the Department of Neurosurgery's Grand Rounds to be held on May 5, Monday, at 7:30 AM in Room F-639. Selected as this year's Michael Gruson Lecturer, his topic will be "Translational Research in Neuro-Oncology." Dr. Westphal will examine efforts to translate and bring laboratory results to the clinical setting early in the treatment process with a focus on understanding why a treatment works, or does not work, in particular subgroups. The Department of Neurosurgery welcomes Dr. Westphal and cordially invites all to attend.

An expert in the field of glioblastomas, malignant tumors of the central nervous system, Dr. Westphal received his M.D. from the Universities of Hamburg and Glasgow. He established the Laboratory for Brain Tumor Biology at the University of Hamburg Medical School and has served as the Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University Hospital-Eppendorf, Hamburg. He is a Board Member of the European Brain Council and serves as a reviewer for nearly 20 scientific journals. Since 1988, Dr. Westphal has been actively involved in spearheading clinical trials, both government and industrial sponsored, for novel treatments of glioblastomas.

Dr. Susan Pannullo, Director of Neuro-Oncology, established The Michael Gruson Lectureship in Neuro-Oncology in 2006. Mr. Gruson, a key figure in the world of international banking and a highly respected attorney in New York City, was under Dr. Panullo's care until his passing in 2005. Due to the generosity of the Gruson family, the department has sponsored a yearly lecture highlighting internationally renowned researchers and clinicians in the field of brain and spinal tumors. Speakers are chosen not only on their outstanding work, but based on qualities demonstrated by Mr. Gruson during his lifetime -- academic excellence, a pioneering spirit, and an ability to form international partnerships.

Here is a link to the Weill Cornell Neurological Surgery website.

Clinical trial evaluating brain cancer vaccine is underway at NYU: NYU is the only site in New York-metropolitan area enrolling patients

NEW YORK, October 18, 2007 – A clinical trial evaluating a brain cancer vaccine in patients with newly diagnosed brain cancer has begun at NYU Medical Center. The study will evaluate the addition of the vaccine following standard therapy with surgery and chemotherapy in patients with glioblastoma multiforme, a deadly form of brain cancer.

The vaccine, called DCVax-Brain, incorporates proteins found in patients’ tumors and is designed to attack cancer cells containing these proteins. The study underway at NYU Medical Center is an expansion of an earlier phase I trial of the vaccine. The vaccine is made by the Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc., based in Bothell, Washington.

“We are really excited about the promise of this vaccine,” said Patrick J. Kelly, M.D., the chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery and the Joseph Ransohoff Professor of Neurosurgery at NYU School of Medicine. “Everything now depends on something in addition to surgery so that these tumors do not recur. A cancer vaccine like this may make a difference in extending life and maintaining a good quality of life.”

“This is a form of individualized therapy,” adds NYU neuro-oncologist Michael Gruber, M.D. “There is a lot of promise with this approach,” he says. He and Dr. Kelly will be the lead investigators conducting the trial at NYU.

Despite surgery and chemotherapy, patients with glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer typically survive about 15 months. Even if only a small number of tumor cells are left in the brain, that is enough for these fast growing and aggressive tumors to grow back. The tumors do not grow elsewhere in the body. “It is so frustrating,” notes Dr. Kelly, “because brain tumors don’t metastasize like other tumors. They recur locally but we just can’t cure it.”

A brain cancer vaccine is intended as a kind of immunotherapy, which means that it primes the patient’s own immune system to kill proteins found in cancer cells. The trial will enroll patients 18 to 65 years old with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer who will receive standard primary treatment with surgery followed by radiation with concurrent chemotherapy. Enrolled patients will be randomized to receive the standard of care, and others will receive the standard of care and the vaccine.

The vaccine will be made from the tumors and immune cells of each patient. When a patient’s tumor is removed during surgery it will be shipped to a laboratory where the tumor cells will be broken up to prepare the first component of the vaccine. Separately, patients’ dendritic cells, a powerful type of immune cell, will be obtained and sent to a laboratory for purification. Dendritic cells may be able to teach the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. The patients’ tumor cell material is combined with the dendritic cells to form the vaccine.

Researchers Develop Vaccine for Brain Cancer

By Regina Sass

October 23, 2007 - Research from the Duke University's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center indicates that a common human virus may be a useful tool in treating the most deadly of the brain tumors. They feel their discovery will be an important step that will eventually lead to the development of a vaccine that has the capacity to attack the tumors by using the body's own immune system.

The virus is called human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and from 50 to 90% of the population gets infected by it during their life time. It is also found to be active in more than 90% of patients with glioblastoma multiforme, the most deadly form of brain cancer.

They do not know at this point whether the virus is in part responsible for the growth of the tumor, or if the opposite is true and the tumor does something to activate the virus. What they have been able to establish is the fact that the virus has the possibility to be able to affect the growth as well as the invasivemess of the cancer cells. With this fact in mind, the figure that if they target the virus, they may boost the body's own immune system to fight the tumor and destroy the cancer.

A vaccine that would target HCMV would most likely be administered after a course of conventional chemotherapy. And the reason for this is the fact that when the immune system is recovering from chemotherapy, there is a burst of new immune cells and the vaccine would be ale to use this process to make and even stronger immune response to the virus.

In a person who does not have the cancer and is relatively healthy, with no immune system problems, the initial infection from the HCMV can be completely symptom free, or at the worse there will be mild flu like symptoms. After the infection phase had past, the virus stays with the person for the rest of his or her life, but in a dormant form.

However, in a person who has a weakened immune system, for example, AIDS patients or someone who has to undergo a bone marrow transplant, the HCMV can become reactivated and thereby be the cause of more severe illnesses, pneumonia for one.

It was back in 2002 when the connection between HCMV and brain tumors was first noticed. This was done by researchers at the University of Alabama - Birmingham, but ever since then, no one has been able to duplicate their results.

The recent study has not only confirmed the fact that the virus is associated with the tumors, but was also able to determine that the patients with the cancer also had a detectable level of the virus in their blood streams, whereas those without the cancer did not.

Based on the results of the research, they have developed a vaccine that will target HCMV and are presently conducting a clinical trial that will provide information on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine to build up the cancer patients' immunity to HCMV. They expect to complete the enrollment in the trial sometime this year. The cancer patients get the vaccine monthly in conjunction with chemotherapy for as long as the tumors stay stable.

The lead researcher is Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., a brain cancer researcher. The rest of the team is Weihua Xie, Robert Schmittling, Chris Learn, Allan Friedman, Roger McLendon and John Sampson.

Tsubota-Gruson Memorial Golf Classic Fundraising Event

The Tsubota-Gruson Memorial Golf Classic, one of the fund's major fundraising efforts, will take place at Bonnie Briar Country Club in Larchmont, New York on October 1, 2007. Those interested in participating should contact us at (212) 737-7826 for further information.

The Gruson Fund makes Contribution in support of "The Michael Gruson Neuro-Oncology Research Clinical Trials Coordinator" at Weill Cornell Medical College

July 26, 2007 - The Board of Directors of The Gruson Fund for Brain Tumor Research and Care is pleased to present to The New York Brain Tumor Project of Weill Cornell Medical College a check in the amount of $40,000 in support of "The Michael Gruson Neuro-Oncology Research Clinical Trials Coordinator" for the period from July 1, 2007 and ending on June 30, 2008. Dr. Euphael Henry has been designated as The Michael Gruson Neuro-Oncology Research Clinical Trials Coordinator. His work will focus on the continuation of brain tumor trials, including studies of treatments and imaging for brain tumors as well as studies of ways to improve quality of life for brain tumor patients.

The Gruson Fund makes Contribution in support of "The Michael Gruson Post-Doctoral Research Fellow" at NYU Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery

July 26, 2007 - The Board of Directors of The Gruson Fund for Brain Tumor Research and Care is pleased to present to the NYU Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery a check in the amount of $20,000 in support of "The Michael Gruson Post-Doctoral Research Fellow" for the period from July 1, 2007 and ending on June 30, 2008. Dr. Ramla Benmaamar has been designated as The Michael Gruson Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. Her research will focus on developing an innovative diagnostic tool for Glioblastoma Multiforme.

The First Michael Gruson Memorial Lectureship in Neuro-Oncology

We had a successful 2006 Michael Gruson Memorial Lectureship in collaboration with Weil Cornel Medical Center. The presentation was made by Dr. Del Mestro, Professor and William F. Feindel Chair in Neuro-Oncology, Division of Neurosurgery and Oncology, McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute.