Rachael's Ribbons of Hope
News
This is the “Era of the Brain.” With the explosion in knowledge about its genetic, molecular and cellular bases, there exists tremendous promise to fully understand complex disorders of the brain and nervous system. This is especially true for childhood brain tumors, where daily discoveries in neuroscience, developmental neurobiology and oncology promise to radically alter the way central nervous system tumors are treated. At Children’s National Medical Center, we envision a day when a child diagnosed with a brain tumor from anywhere in the world visits our clinic for evaluation by brain tumor specialists and undergoes nominally invasive, painless procedures so the tumor and its tissue signature can be analyzed by scientists in our laboratory. Based on this information, the child’s doctor will prescribe a tailored, biologic “cocktail” to destroy only the child’s tumor cells, leaving healthy brain tissue intact.
We seek to change medicine so children will thrive—enjoying school, careers and one day, families of their own. To accomplish this transformation for children diagnosed with brain tumor, Dr. Roger J. Packer created The Brain Tumor Institute at Children’s National Medical Center with the goal of seamlessly integrating rigorous scientific endeavor into exceptional, family-focused medicine for children diagnosed with brain tumors. The Brain Tumor Institute brings a single-minded, cross-discipline focus to advancing research and clinical care for children diagnosed with brain tumors. By embedding translational research into everyday care for children with brain tumors, we seek to unlock the biologic mysteries of the brain to prevent or cure brain tumors. Our initial focus is identifying novel molecular targets, developing innovative translational trials, and delivering the best in multimodality therapy for children with brain tumors. Early results have demonstrated that this line of investigation holds tremendous promise for treatments that are safer and more effective for patients.
Roger J. Packer, MD, Director of The Brain Tumor Institute
