Call in the cavalry

On Oct. 22, 2008, the parents of six-year-old Samson Gelfand confronted a devastating reality. Their child had a brain tumor. One week later, a neurosurgeon successfully removed the mass, which pathologists confirmed was medulloblastoma, a fast-growing, cancerous tumor that develops at the back of the brain in the cerebellum.

Kim Gilman, BA ’89, and Jeff Gelfand, BBA ’88, brought their family to Ann Arbor in 2009 once Samson completed treatment. Samson, in front, loved Pizza Bob’s and Zingerman’s, Gilman says. (Image courtesy of Gilman.)

“To say that our world bottomed out on that day would be a colossal understatement,” says Samson’s mother, Kim Gilman, BA ’89. She and her husband Jeff Gelfand, BBA ’88, were “completely on our own,” she says. “There was no cavalry coming to save the day.”

The couple was based in Westchester, New York, at the time. They consulted with the oncology team at New York-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and got second, third, fourth, and fifth opinions from experts around the country. Samson would undergo six weeks of daily proton beam radiation at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. Then he underwent six months of high-dose chemotherapy at the New York-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital.

“We did our homework,” Gilman explains. “We spoke to other parents who had walked the same journey. Their insight was the most insightful and helped to inform our treatment plan.”

Today, Samson studies architecture at Drexel University. And in the decades since their son’s recovery, Gilman and Gelfand have created the cavalry they never had. They are working with researchers at Michigan Medicine to lead the charge toward a cure for the pediatric disease.

To the rescue

Michigan Medicine researchers Maria Castro and Pedro Lowenstein. (Image courtesy of Castro.)

In 2009, Gilman and Gelfand ― who met as undergrads in 1986 while studying in the Law Library ― became involved with A Kids’ Brain Tumor Cure (AKBTC). They organized a grassroots fundraiser called “Think Fit For Kids” in a local gym. Over 10 years they raised more than $2.5 million to support cutting-edge research at best-in-class medical institutions.

In 2018, after AKBTC merged with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF), Gelfand joined the foundation’s finance committee. He became board chair in 2024. Gilman, a retired lawyer, recently joined the Mission Advisory Council to the board, as well as its Cavalry, Legal, and Advocacy committees.

“After pediatric brain cancer surgery, the standard of care was, and remains, radiation and chemotherapy with toxic drugs that were developed in the 1960s for adults,” Gilman says. “There have been no new treatment advancements in decades. We are striving to change that landscape by investing in research to find more-effective, less-toxic treatment options that have been developed specifically for children.”

“Science is a team sport,” says Castro, the R.C. Schneider Professor of Neurosurgery and professor of cell and developmental biology. She has spent 25 years working in this highly specialized field. “Michigan has a wonderful research environment, because everyone is talented, collaborative, and willing to go out of their way to participate.”

Alumni like Gilman and Gelfand have found the best way to participate outside the lab. The couple works tirelessly to raise funds and support the families of young patients experiencing financial hardship due to their child’s illness. They also are vocal advocates for the PBTF on Capitol Hill and in local communities.

Amplifying strengths

As for research, their focus is currently on the team’s three-year project to investigate the recurrence of pediatric brain cancer.

The couple is tapping their Wolverine network to recruit prominent alumni and donors from different class years, disciplines, and industries.

“We have a lot of Michigan DNA in our foundation, including Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who has joined our advisory board,” says Gelfand, a consultant for the alternative-asset management industry.

Gupta says he is eager to advance the team’s work.

“Together, we are addressing immediate needs for pediatric brain tumor research and investing in lasting solutions that will provide a powerful engine for meaningful change,” says Gupta, ’90/MD ’93, CNN’s chief medical correspondent. “We’re not just collaborating; we’re amplifying each other’s strengths, and I’m proud of our shared vision.”

A huge milestone

“We know how blessed we are,” says Gilman with her family. (Image courtesy of Gilman.)

In collaboration with the Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, and Rogel Cancer Center, several biomedical research teams like Castro’s are developing innovative treatments for pediatric brain tumors, the leading cause of disease-related death for American children and adolescents.

Today, more than 40,000 youngsters are living with a brain tumor in the U.S. Those who survive the cancer are likely to experience 24 chronic health conditions by age 50, the highest of all childhood cancers.

The incidence rates of these deadly tumors continue to grow. Yet, research institutions, government funding agencies, and pharmaceutical companies have fallen short of the mark in formulating new cancer therapies and drug regimens that improve survival and quality-of-life outcomes for young brain cancer patients.

To address this critical gap, Castro hopes to develop novel treatments for brain tumors based on immunotherapeutics, an exciting new approach that targets inhibition of tumor growth and recurrence.

This treatment delivers therapeutic genetic material directly into the cancerous cells of a brain tumor. The genetic material stimulates the body’s immune system to recognize the tumor and kill off any lingering cancer cells that remain after a neurosurgeon has removed the bulk of the mass.

Pioneering discovery

Recently, Castro, Lowenstein, and their teams (including those pictured here) finished an FDA-approved gene therapy phase 1 clinical trial for malignant brain cancer, which involved 18 adult patients at U-M. (Image courtesy of Castro.)

Recently, Castro’s team ― in collaboration with Lowenstein, a professor of neurosurgery, and of cell and developmental biology, and his team ― finished an FDA-approved gene therapy Phase 1 clinical trial for malignant brain cancer, which involved 18 adult patients at U-M.

The results, Castro reports, were “really amazing” ― and extremely promising.

“This was a huge milestone,” Castro says. “No one else in the U.S. has this therapeutic platform, so U-M is a pioneer in this area.

“We are now expanding our immunotherapy treatment to other cancer centers throughout the country,” she continues. “We will soon be testing it in children with diffuse high-grade gliomas, a deadly form of brain cancer.”

This entails training the body’s immune system to recognize a recurring or treatment-resistant tumor and then to reawaken and send an army of specialized white blood cells (called T-lymphocytes, or T-cells) into the tumor mass to kill off the cancerous cell growth.

“Right now, no one knows how and why these tumors come back and how to prevent them from recurring,” Castro says. “It is kind of a black box. But if we can discover the mechanisms that lead to therapeutic resistance, we will be able to prevent tumors from recurring and keep them in remission forever.”

She is grateful for the extraordinary investment from Gilman and Gelfand.

“They are enabling us to translate our work from the lab to the patients,” Castro says. “Without them, we would not be at the clinical trial stage right now.”

Giving families hope

Gilman and Gelfand say they feel fortunate to have had good insurance and employers who were understanding and supportive. But many families are not as lucky, and breadwinners often quit their jobs to care for their child and go bankrupt within months of diagnosis.

“Shepherding our son and his two older brothers through this hellacious journey will always be the greatest challenge of our lives,” Gilman says. “However, we know how blessed we are, as most families who receive this diagnosis do not have the outcome we have: a happy, healthy 22-year-old son.”

Samson, who recently joined the PBTF’s NextGen Committee, looks forward to creating better outcomes for families who face a journey like his.

“I’m so proud that my diagnosis inspired my parents to team up with others in the fight against pediatric brain tumors,” Samson says. “After all these years, it’s amazing to see that hope can thrive from even the toughest journeys, like the ones my family, and others like us, have been on.

Lead image features team Michigan Medicine members supporting the research of Maria Castro and Pedro Lowenstein. Castro is third from left in black hair and bangs. Research partner Pedro Lowenstein is beside her. (Image courtesy of Castro.)