Tower Cancer Research Foundation has an outstanding reputation in the medical field for contributing to breakthrough research. A staff of excellent professionals manages clinical trials, many of which have resulted in significant contributions to cancer research. To date, Tower has enrolled over 200 patient volunteers into clinical trials and has contributed significantly to the pivotal research that made it possible for Erbitux®, Avastin®, Eloxatin®, as well as other drugs and treatments, to become FDA approved and available for cancer treatments.

In 2004, our research affiliation with City of Hope Cancer Center has greatly expanded the number of options for clinical trials available to our patients, placing Tower closer to the top of its field in research.

Here are just a few of the clinical trials in which Tower has played a major role.

1. FavId
Category : Developmental Therapeutics - Immunotherapy
SubCategory : Vaccine

Dr. Fred Rosenfelt is the principal investigator in this study of an experimental vaccine that increases the bodies’ ability to successfully fight cancer through its own immune system, without the use of chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

Vaccination against small pox has long been a successful method to prevent that infection, but until today, modern science has not been able to treat successfully a malignant cancer using a vaccine. Why? Although research has been done to try and create such a treatment, the results of vaccine treatments for certain malignancies have generally been inconclusive. Typically, chemotherapy and radiation are administered for effective treatment.

This research study has found a way to treat malignant lymphomas with a vaccine that shows highly promising results. It’s a way of helping the body fight off the malignancy on its own. The patient is given a vaccine that is an extract of their own lymphoma cells, which builds immunity in their body to delay recurrence and inevitable relapse of the lymphoma. This new therapy is non-invasive; it is not chemotherapy, but it has been found effective in preventing the multiplication and progression of lymphoma cells in the body. It’s this type of innovative thinking and research at Tower Cancer Research Foundation that has given it a reputation of being a premier research and treatment center.

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2. Intra-Arterial Carboplatin for High Grade Gliomas
Category: Central Nervous System Tumors
SubCategory: Central Nervous System Tumors

Drs. Heifetz (now retired) and Hamburg participated in this important study that seeks to circumvent the bodies’ own natural blockade against the penetration of cancer drugs into the brain.

High Grade Gliomas are malignant brain tumors that usually kill people within the first year after diagnosis. There is a natural barrier between the blood and the brain, almost as if the brain creates its own sanctuary protected from any outside interference. This blood-brain barrier prevents penetration of chemotherapy into the brain when these drugs are administered orally or directly into the blood stream. One way to penetrate this barrier is to insert a catheter into the artery that feeds the tumor, thus circumventing the natural blood brain barrier. Once the catheter is inserted, the chemotherapy drugs that are injected into it have direct access to the tumor and begin to destroy it. It is hoped that this type of unique and revolutionary treatment will retard the growth of inoperable or incompletely removed brain tumors.

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3. Erbitux® and Avastin®
Tower Cancer Research Foundation is actively engaged in clinical trials with two major growth factor inhibitors - Erbitux® and Avastin®. This category of drugs is known as targeted therapy. Cancer cells require substances in their surrounding environment to grow rapidly. These substances are called growth factors. Instead of destroying tumor cells, which is what chemotherapy accomplishes, this unique treatment interferes with those factors that help the tumors to grow.

This is an entirely new approach to the treatment of cancer. It targets the tumor by attacking the tumor’s fuel supply, essentially blocking the tumor’s ability to divide.

Tower was one of several sites able to enroll a substantial number of patients into an Erbitux® trial, which eventually led to FDA approval and successful entry of this product into the marketplace. Erbitux® is a so-called monoclonal antibody, which blocks the attachment of certain growth factors to tumor cells.

Avastin® is an antibody to a growth factor that enhances the blood supply to cancer cells. Avastin® inhibits growth of the blood supply feeding cancer cells.

Tower continues to be actively involved in tw