The Luke Pike Lab seeks to understand the unique biology of brain metastasis (BM) to improve outcomes for patients afflicted with various solid tumors. BM is exceptionally common, with an estimated 400,000 patients diagnosed yearly in the U.S. The mechanisms by which cancer cells spread to and survive in the brain are poorly understood. The standard treatment for BM has been radiation therapy with or without surgical resection, as most drug therapies are ineffective against BM. New drugs, such as immune checkpoint or targeted inhibitors, have shown promising activity against BM, but our understanding of why they often fail in the brain is incomplete. The Pike Lab uses cutting-edge molecular techniques to understand tumor tropism for the brain and to identify features of human BM that might lead to drug or radiation resistance and the survival of cancer cells in the brain tumor microenvironment.
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