NTI and UT-Austin Researchers Awarded Texas 4000 Cancer Research Grant

8/31/2011 8:49:09 AM

Drs. Matthew Cowperthwaite, Director of Research at NeuroTexas Institute at St. David’s HealthCare, and Mia K. Markey, The University of Texas at Austin Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, have received a $25,000 grant from the Texas 4000 Cancer Research Seed Grant Program. The grant will support their research into approaches for differentiating tumor recurrence from treatment effects in patients with metastatic brain cancer. Cancer recurrence and treatment effects often appear similarly on standard radiographic images, and typically confound clinicians attempting to determine the best care plan for their patients.

Markey and Cowperthwaite’s preliminary work, in collaboration with Dr. Mark Burnett, Executive Medical Director of NeuroTexas Institute, aims to identify features observed on standard radiographic images that can be automatically measured by computer software and can differentiate brain tumor recurrence from treatment effects. Their work may lead to computer-based decision support systems that could provide vital diagnostic information to help physicians with the management of patients with metastatic brain cancer.

Texas 4000, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization was founded in 2004 by UT Biomedical Engineering alumnus and cancer survivor, Chris Condit along with other UT-Austin students as a means to raise both funds and awareness for cancer research. Each year 60 UT-Austin students make a 70 day, 4,687 mile bike trek from the UT-Austin campus to Anchorage which remains to be the longest charity ride in the world.