Dr. Justin Lathia of Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute will visit Oberlin College to give the talk: “Sex difference in brain tumors impact patient outcome and inform next-generation therapies”.

Despite advances in the diagnosis and clinical care of many cancers, some tumors still have a poor prognosis. Among these are brain tumors and in particular, glioblastoma, the most common primary malignant brain tumor. Interestingly, like several other cancers, glioblastoma shows a sex difference in incidence with males being more prone to glioblastoma compared to females (1.6:1) as well as outcome, with males having a poor prognosis compared to females, given the same standard of care treatments. Our laboratory has attributed some of these sex differences to the immune system and the highlights of this work will be covered, along with new work showing the importance of sex hormones in mediating this sex difference. These studies highlight the emerging field of sex differences in cancer and provide an opportunity use sex as a biological variable to uncover additional insight into complex diseases, such as cancer.

During the presentation, examples of translational research will be provided (use of human samples, validation of findings in human patients) and this approach is the backbone of research approaches at the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Opportunities to enroll in the Lerner Research Institute Molecular Medicine PhD program will be discussed, where students have the opportunity to train in such a translational medicine environment, as well as broader training opportunities at the Cleveland Clinic, including Winter Term opportunities.