Medical College receives $1.4M cancer grant

Milwaukee, Wis. - The National Cancer Institute has awarded a five-year, $1.4 million renewal grant to the Medical College of Wisconsin to study the growth of blood vessels in brain tumors.

This is the second successful renewal of the grant that was first awarded in 2003. Kathleen Schmainda, associate professor of radiology, is the ongoing principal investigator.

She and other investigators are developing what they call magnetic resonance imaging “contrast agent methods” to study angiogenesis, the rapid new growth of blood vessels, in brain tumors.

Schmainda, who has a degree in biomedical engineering from Marquette University, said patients with brain tumors are in desperate need of new therapies. Recent clinical studies combining anti-angiogenic agents with conventional therapies have shown significant improvements in patient response, and these findings led to the first FDA-approved anti-angiogenic agents.

To fully realize the promise of combined therapies, Schmainda said non-invasive methods are needed that can answer questions about how these agents work and how to optimally combine them.

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