There’s a New Clinical Trial in Town

Providence Saint John’s Health Center has opened the first Voyager device clinical trial in Los Angeles. Principal investigator, Garni Barkhoudarian, MD, and co- investigator, Santosh Kesari, MD, PhD, both faculty at Saint John’s Cancer Institute and Pacific Neuroscience Institute physicians, are actively recruiting patients for this study.

Voyager, an innovative non-invasive device for patients with recurrent Glioblastoma (rGBM), is a band that fits around the patient’s head and produces a specific electromagnetic field that disrupts cancer cell division without causing unwanted side effects.

“We are excited to bring this novel technology to Los Angeles. Voyager alone or in combination with traditional chemotherapy could provide patients with another avenue for treating rGBM,” says neurosurgeon, Dr. Garni Barkhoudarian.

The study has passed the safety phase and is now investigating whether the device is successful in improving progression-free survival, an indicator of prolonged survival rates.

First developed in Seattle by Nativis, Voyager trials began in mid-2015 at Swedish Neuroscience Institute, a Providence partner hospital. PNI and JWCI are one of only five centers nationwide and the first site in Los Angeles to have this device available for patients with rGBM.

Physician/researcher, Dr. Kesari, has collaborated with Nativis over the past 5 years and performed the pivotal preclinical studies. He states, “This device dramatically inhibited brain cancers in preclinical models and was able to be quickly moved into the clinic – an accelerated bench-to-bedside translation of a novel approach.”

For more information about this trial and to find out if you are eligible, please contact us.

Garni Barkhoudarian, MD
PI
Co-Director, Pacific Brain Tumor and Pituitary Disorders Centers
Pacific Neuroscience Institute
Saint John’s Cancer Institute
310-582-7640 | garni.barkhoudarian@providence.org

Annie Heng, RN, BSN
Research Nurse Coordinator
310-582-7457 | annie.heng@providence.org