“Thanks to funding from VeloSano, we’ll be able to use our knowledge of low-grade glioma and find out better ways to use targeted therapies in this disease,” says Andrew Dhawan, MD, DPhil.
Co-Investigator
A newer medication targets a slow growing but fatal brain cancer that typically affects young people, but we still don’t know the long-term effects of the medication. Andrew Dhawan, MD, DPhil, along with Mina Lobbous, MD, MPH, will be running tests on brain tumor cells in the lab to find out the impact of vorasidenib.
A glioma is a tumor that forms in the brain or spinal cord. Low-grade glioma affects thousands of people each year, most of which are 20 to 40 years old. Dr. Dhawan will be testing what happens to these tumors when given targeted medication towards their mutations over a long period of time and how their cells become resistant to treatment.
“I think we’re going to learn a lot about how these tumors act to evade targeted therapy, which has never been done before,” says Dr. Dhawan. “I think we’re also going to learn whether specific schedules can help us prolong how long we can use this medication, whether it allows us to use it for a longer period of time to keep the tumor at bay.”
He plans to test multiple strategies, like starting and stopping the drug at different schedules, to see if he can cleverly outmaneuver the development of resistance. One strategy investigates what occurs when the drug is paused for a prolonged period of time, such as the natural nine-month break of pregnancy.
Dr. Dhawan hopes his research will rapidly change treatment of this disease so patients can live longer and better lives. “It’s an incredible privilege to be with our patients and, quite frankly, be able to do the research that we do,” says Dr. Dhawan.
100% For The Cure
