August 2023

UROLOGY

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: ROGER STUPP, MD, RENOWNED NEURO-ONCOLOGIST

Roger Stupp, MD, is an internationally recognized neuro-oncologist with a special focus on innovative cancer treatments and drug development for brain tumors and brain metastases. He joined Northwestern Medicine in 2017 to lead the Division of Neuro-oncology, serve as the co-director of Lou and Jean Malnati Brain Tumor Institute and as associate director for Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also the Paul C. Bucy Professor of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern Medicine.
 
Dr. Stupp has been the lead investigator for numerous clinical trials from first-in-human phase 1 to pivotal phase 3 registration studies. In 2005, he led clinical research demonstrating that chemotherapy with the drug temozolomide (Temodar®) in conjunction with radiotherapy increases survival for patients with glioblastoma. Later, Dr. Stupp and colleagues showed that electromagnetic waves called tumor treating fields can substantially improve outcomes for patients suffering from glioblastoma. These breakthrough discoveries led to the last two FDA-approved treatments for the disease. Dr. Stupp is best known for the “Stupp Protocol,” which is the standard of care for patients with glioblastoma today. Dr. Stupp went on to establish MGMT as a predictive marker for benefit from alkylating agent chemotherapy and Tumor Treating Fields (Optune®) as an innovative treatment modality.


Dr. Stupp is now leading trials investigating innovative strategies to open the blood-brain barrier selectively, temporarily and reversibly to facilitate novel medicines (including immunotherapy) to reach the tumor in higher concentrations. He recently pioneered the use of a novel ultrasound technology in the U.S. to open the blood-brain barrier for chemotherapy delivery. As part of another recent trial at Northwestern Medicine, Dr. Stupp has overseen subsequent successful blood-brain barrier opening for chemotherapy delivery in several patients.
 
Powerful Chemotherapy Drug Reaches Brain Tumors in Humans Using Novel Ultrasound Technology
 
Dr. Stupp earned his medical degree from University of Zurich in Switzerland and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Langenthal/Bern County Hospital and University Hospital Zurich. He then moved to the United States for a three-year fellowship in hematology/oncology at University of Chicago before joining Switzerland’s Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne in 1996. There, he rose through the ranks to director of Oncology Clinical Research and head of Neuro-oncology in the Department of Neurosurgery. In 2013, he returned to University Hospital Zurich as director of the Department of Oncology and of Zurich Cancer Center. He joined Northwestern Medicine in 2017 to lead the Division of Neuro-oncology, serve as the co-director of Lou and Jean Malnati Brain Tumor Institute and as associate director for Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also the Paul C. Bucy Professor of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern Medicine.
 
Among many honors and awards recognizing his contributions to cancer science, Dr. Stupp received the European Society for Medical Oncology’s Hamilton Fairley Award and the Society for Neuro-Oncology’s Victor Levin Award. He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed journal articles, editorials and book chapters.

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