Elsevier Author, Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, MD, is an internationally recognized leader in the field of neurosurgery and professor of neurosurgery, oncology and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His cutting-edge cancer research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa’s most recent study suggests patients’ own fat cells may help attack cancer – specifically glioblastoma, the deadliest type of brain tumor.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are harvested from fat tissue and have the ability to “track” cancer cells and attack them. Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa feels this is an important aspect because “the biggest challenge in brain cancer is the migration of cancer cells. Even when we remove the tumor, some of the cells have already slipped away and are causing damage somewhere else.” He also states, “Building off our findings, we may be able to find a way to arm a patient’s own healthy cells with the treatment needed to chase down those cancer cells and destroy them. It’s truly personalized medicine.”

Not only can MSCs be effective in treating brain cancer, Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa says MSCs have been studied in animal models to treat trauma, Parkinson’s disease, ALS and many other diseases.

Read more about Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa by visiting his Elsevier Authors bio page and visit PLOS ONE to read the study’s findings.