Pollack Receives Mahaley Clinical Research Award

Pittsburgh, October 10, 2012 -- The Congress of Neurological Surgeons presented Ian F. Pollack, MD -- Walter Dandy Professor of Neurological Surgery and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital’s of Pittsburgh -- with the National Brain Tumor Society's Mahaley Clinical Research Award at the group's national meeting held October 6-10, in Chicago for his paper on peptide vaccines in children.

The paper, "Peptide Vaccine Therapy for Childhood Gliomas: Interim Results of a Pilot Study," showed that peptide vaccines in children with gliomas -- the most common type of brain tumor -- not only were well-tolerated but also showed evidence of immunological responses.

[See Study Reports Peptide Vaccine Shows Promise in Fight Against Gliomas in Children.]

According to the CNS, the competition for the award this year was quite rigorous as it received a high number of very competitive abstract submissions. All papers were reviewed by a group of neurosurgeons with specific expertise in the subject matter of their work.

In a related news item, the vaccine trial received an extensive report in the May 24 issue of Oncology Times based on Dr. Pollack's presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting held in Chicago in April.