Herceptin Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Herceptin, including details on side-effects, breast cancer, treatment, therapy.

Delivery of chemotherapy and antibodies across the blood-brain barrier and the role of chemoprotection, in primary and metastatic brain tumors: report of the Eleventh Annual Blood-Brain Barrier Consortium meeting.

Doolittle ND, Peereboom DM, Christoforidis GA, Hall WA, Palmieri D, Brock PR, Campbell KC, Dickey DT, Muldoon LL, O'Neill BP, Peterson DR, Pollock B, Soussain C, Smith Q, Tyson RM, Neuwelt EA

Department of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road-L603, Portland, OR 97239-3098, USA.

Although knowledge of molecular biology and cellular physiology has advanced at a rapid pace, much remains to be learned about delivering chemotherapy and antibodies across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) for the diagnosis and treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disease. A meeting, partially funded by an NIH R13 grant, was convened to discuss the state of the science, current knowledge gaps, and future directions in the delivery of drugs and proteins to the CNS, for the treatment of primary and metastatic brain tumors. Meeting topics included CNS metastases and the BBB, and chemoprotection and chemoenhancement in CNS disorders. The discussions regarding CNS metastases generated possibilities of chemoprotection as a means not only to decrease treatment-related toxicity but also to increase chemotherapy dose intensity. The increasing incidence of sanctuary brain metastasis from breast cancer, in part due to the difficulty of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) such as herceptin to cross the BBB, was one of the most salient "take home" messages of the meeting.

Published 20 December 2006 in J Neurooncol, 81(1): 81-91.
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