Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Neurosurgery
I lead a highly-collaborative, translational research group within the Department of Neurosurgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center focusing on metastatic disease of the brain and spine. As a surgeon-scientist, I am particularly interested in analyzing the unique features of the tumors I treat clinically and exploring novel treatment approaches for these patients in both pre-clinical models and clinical trial implantation. Reflecting my clinical practice, key components of the laboratory include an exploration of the unique tumor microenvironmental features of brain and spine metastases along with primary tumors of the spine. These efforts integrate an analysis of the cellular composition and associated cellular interactions of these tumors along with genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional factors that predispose for tumor formation and treatment resistance. This work includes animal modeling to decipher key steps in brain and spine metastasis formation while also providing a framework to explore novel treatment approaches of these tumors. Additionally, I am in interested in utilizing immunotherapeutic approaches such as oncolytic viral therapy alone and in combination with immune modulating agents in vivo. Using these models, we are exploring the unique features of immune cell priming and trafficking, T cell clonal expansion, and myeloid cell regulation within both cranial and extracranial sites of disease. Building upon these pre-clinical studies, I am particularly interested in exploring these immunotherapeutic strategies in the clinical setting. For more details, please reference the following:
Education & Training
MD/PHD - Ohio State University - 2013