Umedical

Our goal at BrainUp is to raise money for Brain Cancer research. Because Brain cancer (especially GBM’s) is considered orphan cancer, money raised for Research has been woefully lacking. BrainUp intends to change that, especially in Chicago, where we are stationed. BrainUp wants to work with the great University Teaching hospitals of Chicago and form a collaboration to begin research and a dialogue between our great institutions.

On the Road to Finding a Cure Learn more about our journey to finding a cure for brain cancer

Our Struggle

Gliomas are incurable brain tumors. There is a wide range of outcomes for patients with gliomas, with some patients surviving many years and others only living a few months after diagnosis. Patients often look to clinical trials for access to promising new treatments. These trials are often offered through multicenter national and international groups sponsored by the federal government or the pharmaceutical industry.

Many times, patients are unable to access these trials for various reasons, including tumor grade or type, number or type of prior treatments, or inability to undergo surgery. This often leads to patients looking outside of Chicago for clinical trials in other locations such as MD Anderson or Duke University among others.

Chicago has some of the finest hospitals in the United States, and some of the most gifted doctors who specialize in brain cancer. Why not bring these hospitals and doctors together to create a superpower of research?

Our Goal

We propose forming a Chicago-based cooperative group whose purpose is to offer novel clinical trials that meet the needs of patients who may not qualify for traditional clinical trials. As the third largest city in the nation, Chicago should be a destination for patients with gliomas.

Not only should we be able to offer compelling trials for our own patients, but we should be able to recruit additional patients from around the region and nation. Our ability to recruit patients to these trials will be strengthened by involving multiple neuro-oncology centers in the Chicago region.

Of equal importance, this cooperative group will lead to scientific collaborations that generate ideas for clinical trials. This will also create a review process to ensure the scientific concepts and design for the trials are sound and worthy, while creating research that is making a difference in brain cancer.

Our Strides

We have successfully created a Chicago Collaboration Group which consists of NorthShore Hospital, the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), the University of Chicago, Northwestern School of Medicine, and Rush University Medical Center.

Although we are in the infancy of our collaboration, we have started something no other nonprofit foundation has achieved in our area and we are proud of our strides. We will not give up. BrainUp is dedicated to making huge strides in the research of brain cancer, and ultimately finding a cure.