Selected Bibliography

• Eckel F, Brunner T, and Jelic S (2010) Biliary cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Ann Oncol .

• Al-Assar Osama, Muschel Ruth J, Mantoni Tine S, McKenna W G, and Brunner Thomas B (2009) Radiation response of cancer stem-like cells from established human cell lines after sorting for surface markers. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, 75(4):1216-25.

• Tinkl D, Grabenbauer G G, Golcher H, Meyer T, Papadopoulos T, Hohenberger W, Sauer R, and Brunner T B (2009) . Downstaging of pancreatic carcinoma after neoadjuvant chemoradiation. Strahlenther Onkol, 185(9):557-66.

• Bernhard Eric J and Brunner Thomas B (2008) Progress towards the use of HIV protease inhibitors in cancer therapy. Cancer Biol Ther, 7(5):636-7.

• Brunner Thomas B, Geiger Matthias, Grabenbauer Gerhard G, Lang-Welzenbach Marga, Mantoni Tine S, Cavallaro Alexander, Sauer Rolf, Hohenberger Werner, and McKenna W G (2008) Phase I trial of the human immunodeficiency virus protease inhibitor nelfinavir and chemoradiation for locally advanced pancreatic cancer. J Clin Oncol, 26(16):2699-706.

Professor Thomas Brunner

Ductal pancreatic carcinoma is one of the most deadly cancers, ranking fourth in overall lethality with few patient cures even when treated aggressively. Radiotherapy plays a large role in successful treatment together with surgery and chemotherapy since about 80% of the patients are too advanced to undergo surgical resection at diagnosis. Within this context radiotherapy is used to achieve local and regional control in locally advanced disease and to improve surgical outcome in resectable or potentially resectable patients.

Pancreatic cancer is characterized by a strong normal tissue reaction (desmoplastic reaction) surrounding the tumour that is thought to play a critical role in the progression of this cancer and to contribute to its resistance to treatment. Our lab is interested in investigating the interactions between pancreatic tumour cells and surrounding normal cells, in particular pancreatic stellate cells (PSC). The strong and defined desmoplastic reaction produced by the interaction of pancreatic tumour cells and PSC make this tumour type a good model system to study tumour-host interactions, their contribution to tumour growth and to treatment resistance, and to explore potential means of reducing tumour survival during treatment.

We are investigating the influence of desmoplasia on tumour response after radiation and studying cell signalling in the tumour and normal cell compartments before and after radiation to identify potential targets (both tumour and normal cell specific and common targets) in cells of pancreatic carcinomas. Molecular targets identified are then blocked specifically in combination with radiation to test the effect of the block on tumour responses to radiation.

Using this approach we will learn more about the interaction of tumours with their hosts and how these interactions promote tumour growth and virulence. Using this knowledge, we plan to develop new approaches to the treatment of tumours that target survival signals resulting from their interactions with the normal cells surrounding them.

2005 Habilitation at the University of Erlangen

2003-2006 Consultant
University of Erlangen

2001-2003 Post-doctoral Fellow
University of Pennsylvania

1995-2000 Resident and Fellow
University of Erlangen

1995 MD
University of Erlangen

1991 ERASMUS integrated medical studies
University of Rennes, France