New Clinical Trials at the UMN Medical School Take Aim at Brain Cancer

Three years ago, Brian Braun underwent an invasive surgery to remove cancer cells in his brain. When the cancer returned in 2018, he feared he'd have to go through the rough ordeal again. That wouldn't be so. Thanks to cutting-edge clinical trials in the Department of Neurosurgery, he was back to work two weeks after his surgery. 

The clinical trials Brian took part in use laser technology to heat and kill the cancer cells. Doctors then inject bioengineered viruses into his brain that are specifically programmed to kill the remaining cancer cells. “These advances are kind of space-age. If I were to tell you, ‘I’m gonna inject a virus into your brain,’ it’s pretty weird right?,” said Dr. Clark Chen in an interview with the MN Daily.