Phillip Beachy PHD Stanford University Medical Center CA.

Stanford discoveries offer first new hope in three decades for lethal pediatric brain tumor. "So little is known about this disease," said Philip Beachy, PhD, professor of developmental biology and senior author of the study. "This work has the potential of moving us a huge step forward."
A pediatric brain tumor that causes gruesome suffering is finally yielding its secrets. For the first time, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have cultured human cells from this cancer, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, and used those cells to create an animal model of the disease. Their discoveries will facilitate research on new treatments for DIPG, a tumor of school-aged children that is now almost universally fatal. The advances come thanks to the parents of young cancer victims, who donated their deceased children's brain tumors for research in the hopes of sparing other families the pain they had experienced. Because of its location in the brain stem, this cancer is rarely biopsied, so scientists have had few previous opportunities to examine the tumors. Click for the article EurekAlert press release Feb 28, 2011