Researcher Spotlight: Scientist seeks answers for pediatric brain tumors

November 2015 - Dr. Shahab Asgharzadeh of Children’s Hospital LA and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center recently caught up with Concern Foundation and shared an update about the work he performed with the help of Concern’s Conquer Cancer Now Award and how that was instrumental to developing his career. 

Dr. Asgharzadeh’s work focuses on neuroblastomas and other nervous system tumors in children and which types of treatments offer the best long-term results. Some tumors have the ability to hack the body’s immune system and create environments that help them grow. 

Using the grant from Concern Foundation, Dr. Asgharzadeh was able to learn more about the role of the immune system in those types of tumors and develop a test that can accurately predict if the tumor will respond to conventional therapies. These predictions mean that alternative therapies can be proposed. He is working to identify new approaches for treating children with neuroblastomas and brain tumors through the development of novel immunotherapies that weaken cancer cells and activate the immune system against the tumors.

Dr. Asgharzadeh has come very far since first receiving the Conquer Cancer Now award in 2010. Today he runs a laboratory at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the test he developed with Concern’s support is being used in trials that represent over 250 children’s hospitals in the United States. 

His work on the importance of the immune system’s role in tumor growth is widely respected and has even opened a new field of research. The Department of Defense and National Institute of Health have recognized this and have since granted Dr. Asgharzadeh over $3 million to further study the role of the immune system and immunotherapies, and develop novel tests to accurately predict recurrence of pediatric tumors. The treatments he has developed may have applications in other types of pediatric cancers and in certain types of adult tumors as well.

Concern Foundation is honored to play a pivotal role in the careers of talented researchers like Dr. Asgharzadeh. It is especially rewarding to stay in touch with our grant recipients and see how the Conquer Cancer Now Award helps to pave the way for their future success and makes a lasting impact in the area of cancer research and therapy. We thank you, our donors, for your support of incredibly important projects like this one.