Brain Tumor Awareness Month

As May comes to a close, there is one more awareness month that we need to pause and remember: Brain Tumor Awareness Month. Approximately 600,000 people in the United States are living with a brain tumor diagnosis, and nearly 60,000 children and adults will be diagnosed with a brain tumor this year alone.

At the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, our scientists and physicians are working every day to seek a cure that will save the lives of these patients. Some of this research is conducted through our SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence) program, a $2.3-million grant from the National Cancer Institute that is designed to move scientific findings quickly and efficiently from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside. For example, one of the most promising projects of the SPORE involves using the herpes simplex virus to target and kill brain tumor cells while sparing the surrounding cells.

This is just one example of the innovative research being done at the Cancer Center. I encourage you to visit our website to learn more about our brain tumor research program and read stories of our patients whose lives were saved by the treatments they received here.

-Ed Partridge, M.D.