We are pleased to announce the addition of another Clinical Care Center at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. To make appointments, please contact Dr. Peter Black’s office, 617-732-6810, Fax: 617-734-8342, or Heather Galvin at hgalvin1@partners.org Dr. Black is chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery. See their website at http://www.brighamandwomens.org/neurosurgery/Patient/VHLclinic.asp

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has been ranked for several years as one of the best hospitals in the US with all the subspecialties needed to treat VHL patients. The Division of Neurosurgery has long traditions. Its first chairman, Dr. Harvey Cushing, was the pioneer of modern neurosurgery. The current chairman, Dr. Peter McLaren Black, is an authority in neuro-oncology and image-guided neurosurgery. He is joined in this initiative by Dr. Robert Friedlander, specialist in neurovascular surgery and by a group of physicians selected from the Boston community.

Participating in this clinic are physicians from the Beetham Eye Institute at the Joslin Diabetes Center, from Children’s Hospital, and from the Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute. Dr. William Kaelin at Dana Farber is very active in basic research on the role of the VHL protein in the cell. Dr. Lloyd P. Aiello, ophthalmologist, is one of the pioneers of telemedicine for treatment of diabetic retinopathy worldwide.

This team has been involved for many years in the investigation of anti-angiogenic drugs for treatment of vascular tumors of the eye, and is nearing launch of an anti-angiogenesis study on VHL. VHL tumors are ideal targets for systemic antiangiogenic therapy because they are highly vascular, often multiple, and often located in brain areas with increased surgical risks. The VHL Clinic is collaborating with Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Dr. Kaelin) in a phase II clinical trial using a novel anti-angiogenic small molecule to treat hemangioblastomas of the central nervous system (CNS) and retina in VHL. This study has not yet opened to VHL patients. Further information will be posted on the VHL website when available.

As printed in the VHL Family Forum 10:3, September 2002. For permission to reprint, please contact VHL Family Alliance, editor@vhl.org.