John H. Sampson

John Howard Sampson, M.D., Ph.D, M.B.A , M.H.S.c, is the chief of the Department of Neurosurgery at Duke University where he serves as a professor of surgery, biomedical engineering, immunology, and pathology.

Education

Work and research

Sampson has written a variety of papers, including a paper in Nature on his clinical trial on the treatment of Glioblastoma patients and another in how tetanus toxoid and CCL3 improve dendritic cell vaccines in mice and glioblastoma patients. His current research activities involve the immunotherapeutic targeting of a tumor-specific mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor. Approaches used to target this tumor-specific epitope include unarmed and radiolabeled antibody therapy and cell mediated approaches using peptide vaccines and dendritic cells. Another area of interest involves drug delivery to brain tumors. Translational and clinical work is carried out in this area to formulate the relationship between various direct intratumoral infusion parameters and drug distribution within brain tumors and normal brain.

This laboratory has an emphasis on translational research in Neuro-Oncology. There are two main areas of study. The first is novel mechanisms of delivery of large molecular weight molecules, such as monoclonal antibodies, throughout brain intersitial space using novel intracerebral infusion techniques developed by this laboratory. Studies exploring this technology are undertaken in both small and large laboratory animals and patients with brain tumors.

The other focus of the laboratory is translational immunotherapy. In this line of work dendritic cell vaccination strategies and adoptive T-cell strategies have been developed to target novel and well-characterized tumor specific antigens in patients with brain tumors. This laboratory integrates well with and works closely with The Brain Tumor Center at Duke. This laboratory is well funded and currently holds seven NIH grants. There are a large number of investigators at various levels so that students will get exposure to various levels of research and mentorship.

Clinical interests

Newly diagnosed or recurrent primary or metastic brain tumors, including enrollment in clinical trials of new therapeutic agents (especially oncolytic poliovirus therapy, immunotherapy, vaccines and convection-enhanced delivery); posterior fossa tumors, such as acoustic neuromas or meningiomas; microsurgery for tic douloureux or trigeminal neuralgia, including microvascular decompression; microvascular decompression for hemifacial spasm, pituitary tumors, complex skull-base tumors; radiosurgery; evaluation and surgery for patients with the full spectrum of other neurosurgery pathologies.

Notoriety

John Sampson has appeared on 60 Minutes and many other news networks for his work with Glioblastoma cancer treatments.

Papers and publications

References

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