Researchers from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have been awarded a $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop advanced imaging and surgical strategies aimed at improving outcomes for patients with glioblastoma, a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor.
The team, led by Dr. Kunal Patel , assistant professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Dr. Benjamin Ellingson , director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Imaging Laboratory and professor of radiological sciences, will investigate a new approach that combines advanced MRI imaging with surgery and targeted therapies to better identify and treat glioblastoma cells that spread beyond the main tumor and often go undetected.
The research builds on a specialized MRI technique called CEST-EPI, which can detect subtle changes in acidity in and around tumors. These changes can signal areas where cancer cells are actively invading nearby brain tissue. Current imaging methods often miss these non-enhancing tumor cells that extend beyond the main tumor mass, limiting the effectiveness of surgery and contributing to tumor recurrence and poor survival outcomes.
This project aims to use pH-based imaging to guide more precise tumor removal and to explore whether targeting the tumor’s acid-regulating systems could offer a new way to treat the disease.
“Glioblastoma continues to be one of the most difficult cancers to treat, in part because of its highly infiltrative nature,” Patel said. “This work is focused on improving how we see and understand those infiltrative tumor cells so we can better target them during surgery and beyond.”