IRVINE : UCI Gets Funds for Brain Cancer Study

A Los Angeles hospital has given UC Irvine a $208,000 grant for research into the use of the body’s immune system to combat brain cancer.

The grant from the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles to UCI’s Cancer Research Institute will support basic studies by Gale Granger, a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry.

Granger’s approach to the battle against brain cancer is threefold.

First, he has been studying the effect of concentrated amounts of natural cancer-killing substances that are produced by the body’s immune system. So far, injecting patients with those materials has proven largely ineffective.

A second approach is to grow certain human immune cells and implant the cell culture following brain cancer surgery. In clinical trials on patients with a type of brain tumor known as recurrent glioblastoma, delays in the recurrence of cancer have been seen in 10% to 20% of cases, Granger said.

A third method under examination is to identify toxins produced by tumors.

The gift from Good Samaritan is expected to speed further study and a new round of clinical trials, institute officials said.