Skip to cookie consent Skip to main content

The Most Challenging Frontier: How Researchers Across Mass General Brigham Are Confronting Brain Cancer

5 minute read
Cartoon of a researcher holding up a magnifying glass to examine a tumor cell on the surface of an enormous brain.

When it comes to statistics about brain cancer, the numbers of new cases and relative rates of survival are grim. According to the National Cancer Institute, there will be an estimated 24,400 new cases of brain cancer in 2024 and the five-year survival rate is only 33.4%

However, researchers across Mass General Brigham are working to change this.

Many are motivated by personal experience, a fascination with the brain’s complexities, or the challenge of finding ways to treat tumors that invade a region of the body that is one of the most difficult to treat.

We asked brain tumor researchers from across Mass General Brigham about what initially drew them to their field, what they wish everyone knew about it, and what promising areas of research they are working on. Here is what they shared:

Natalie Artzi, PhD

“A family friend's diagnosis with brain cancer during his teenage years inspired me to seek ways to contribute. Despite advancements like radiation therapy, progress has been stagnant for nearly two decades due to challenges in molecular and cellular medicine caused by insufficient delivery technologies. My lab's focus on designing smart local drug delivery systems aims to bridge this gap and offer new solutions for patients. We specialize in creating smart biomaterials that can adapt to various cues and tissue conditions within microenvironments.”

Natalie Artzi, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Priscilla Brastianos, MD

“I became an oncologist and scientist because I lost my mother and grandmother to breast cancer. Their memory drives me every day, and we need to find better treatments for patients with cancer. My research focuses on investigating why cancer spreads and grows within the brain. Our goal is to find better therapies for patients, and it is especially rewarding to see our scientific discoveries make a difference in patients’ lives.”

Priscilla Brastianos, MD
Terry and Jean de Gunzburg MGH Research Scholar 2021-2026
Director of the Central Nervous System Metastasis Center
Massachusetts General Hospital

Jennifer Ellis Cahill, PhD, RN

“Brain tumors represent one of the most challenging frontiers in medicine — both scientifically and clinically — due to the diversity of tumor types, their aggressive nature, limited treatment options and the impact on quality of life. My research focuses on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) like symptom experience and other aspects of quality of life during early-phase clinical trials for new brain tumor therapeutics.”

Jennifer Ellis Cahill, PhD, RN
Nurse Scientist, Munn Center for Nursing Research
Massachusetts General Hospital

E. Antonio (Nino) Chiocca, MD, PhD

“Since glioblastoma is arguably the most difficult tumor to treat, I became interested in this cancer to try and make a difference by translating treatments we discovered in my lab to patients. The desperate need for finding some therapy that works helps drive our efforts to translate discoveries into clinical trials.”

E. Antonio (Nino) Chiocca, MD, PhD
Neurosurgeon-in-Chief and Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Alexandra Golby, MD

“Being able to help patients with brain tumors is incredibly meaningful. My work centers on mapping individual brain differences as well as developing interoperative imaging and navigation so that we can perform the most effective and safest surgery to remove the tumor.”

Alexandra Golby, MD
Director of Image-Guided Neurosurgery
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Anna Krichevsky, PhD

“The pivotal role of non-protein-coding RNAs in driving brain tumors, which remains significantly underestimated, presents immense opportunities for therapeutic intervention. In fact, we have already developed a novel miRNA-targeting drug (RNA therapy) that is nearing readiness for translation into clinical trials. We are eager to collaborate to expedite and facilitate this crucial process.”

Anna Krichevsky, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Julie Miller, MD, PhD

“I study a type of brain cancer known as IDH-mutant glioma. In caring for these patients, I have seen the limitations of standard treatment strategies, and this has inspired me to dedicate my research to finding better therapies. We have recently demonstrated that a genetic alteration that is commonly found in these tumors at recurrence has the potential to predict response to a class of drugs called CDK4/6 inhibitors. In the laboratory, these tumors, when implanted in preclinical models, grow slower when treated with CDK4/6 inhibitors. Since CDK4/6 inhibitors are used commonly in other cancer types, the translation of this strategy into a clinical trial in patients should be fairly straightforward. We are working to make this happen soon.”

Julie Miller, MD, PhD
Physician Investigator
Massachusetts General Hospital

Pierpaolo Peruzzi, MD, PhD

“In my lab, the password is innovation. We look at new ways to treat brain tumors and new methods to study them, one patient at a time. Brain tumors have an intricate control center deep in their DNA, which makes them resistant to therapies. Properly engineered RNA molecules can broadly disrupt this response and help in killing the tumor.”

Pierpaolo Peruzzi, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator, Harvey Cushing Neuro-Oncology Laboratories
Brigham and Women’s Hospital