James L. Rubenstein, MD, PhD

Molecular Therapy of CNS Lymphoma

Dr. Rubenstein’s team is investigating new approaches in the use of Rituximab, a monoclonal antibody which is an important drug in the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Rituximab is the first antibody to be approved in the treatment of cancer and is currently used in the vast majority of patients with large B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the most common and lethal lymphoid tumor. Once of their approaches is to perform the first clinical trial to evaluate direct injection of this antibody in combination with chemotherapy into the cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid which surrounds the brain) to treat recurrent brain lymphomas, a significant complication of the disease. Results of this study may lead to new approaches to treat and/or prevent dissemination of lymphoma cells into central nervous system. The second study which they will perform is aimed to discover drugs which increase the sensitivity of lymphoma tumor cells to Rituximab treatment.