|
'Batman' may lead to breakthrough against brain tumors
One look at the tall pointy ears on the black shepherd mix owned by Anna Brailovsky and her husband Eric Baker, and it's easy to understand why they named him 'Batman'. The one-time stray wandered into their lives 9 years ago, when both were graduate students in East Germany. They knew then what they know now; Batman is a special animal. "He's not a doggy dog, he doesn't bark at things, doesn't chase cars, won't play with balls, he hates water, he just likes to hang out, and be with you," explained Brailovsky. "He's just really good company, and he just so clearly loves us." Imagine their pain, then, when a series of seizures over the past two weeks led to a diagnosis of a brain tumor. Batman's family was trying to decide what to do, when they were asked to take part in experimental research taking place at the University of Minnesota. On Tuesday morning, Batman was wheeled into an operating room at the U of M's Veterinary Medical Center. There, a team made up of doctors from the U of M Veterinary College, and the U of M Masonic Cancer Center performed a first-of-it's-kind procedure to turn back the dog's brain cancer. "This is a situation that actually allows us in the process of treating an animal that actually 'has' a brain tumor, to try to improve that treatment to help the animal 'and' learn something that will hopefully help people," shared Dr. Stephen Haines, a U of M Human Neurosurgeon who was on hand to assist Veterinary Neurosurgeon Dr. Elizabeth Pluhar. Once doctors removed the grape-sized tumor from Batman's brain, the site was injected with a form of gene therapy, a genetically engineered virus that will mark and identify unseen cancer cells. Researchers hope those cells will be attacked by the dog's natural anti-bodies, 'and' a special vaccine Batman will be injected with in a months time. That vaccine will be lab grown with cells from the removed tumor. "We've been talking about doing this for 3 years, but had to do alot of careful research to get to this point, before we felt we could safely do it," maintained Masonic Cancer Center researcher Dr. John Ohlfest. While Ohlfest and other team members are hopeful what they learn will lead to successful treatment of human brain tumors, they say Tuesday's patient is the first priority. "It's just as much about curing Batman as curing you and me," Ohlfest said. Early signs suggest the procedure was a success, and Batman's life will be extended, at a minimum.
|
 MORE HEADLINES |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
