Research Summary

Dr. Butowski specializes in novel therapeutic approaches to brain tumors, clinical trials, neuro-imaging, cognitive and rehabilitative neurology, medical education, and complementary therapy. His ultimate research goal is to develop novel and effective therapeutic strategies for the treatment of patients with primary brain tumors. The most direct research application is the design and conduct of phase I, II, and III clinical trials though federal, state, and industry supported grants. 


As a member of the Brain Tumor Research Center at UCSF, his research goals also include the evaluation of preclincial models, novel imaging techniques and molecular profiling methods that may influence the selection of patients for treatment. His research interests also include methods and/or treatments to ensure good quality of life for patients with brain tumors and methods and/or treatments that may assist patients in recovering from or coping with brain injury. The majority of his clinical activities involve the assessment and management of adult patients with primary brain  and spine tumors.

Research Funding

  • September 10, 2021 - August 31, 2026 - Advancing treatment and understanding of immunotherapy in glioblastoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U19CA264338
  • April 1, 2014 - March 31, 2017 - A Phase I Study of CED of Liposomal-Irinotecan using imaging in High Grade Glioma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21CA186140

Education

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, BA, 1991-1995, Philosophy/Religion
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, MD, 1995-1999
Evanston-Northwestern Hospital, Evanston, IL, Surgical Intern, 1999-2000
UCSF Department of Neurology, Resident, 2000-2003
UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery, Neuro-Oncology Fellow, 2003-2004

Honors & Awards

  • 2017 SNO Board of Directors, Member, SNO
  • 2016 Marin Top Doctors, Marin Magazine
  • 2013 Essential Core Teaching Award, UCSF
  • 2008 - 2013 UCSF Voice of the Patient Award (Press Ganey award for excellence in patient care per division)
  • 1998 General Assembly State Scholarship, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL

Selected Publications

  1. Chen J, Oberheim Bush NA, Grabowsky JA, Kline C, Kroetz DL, Taylor JW, Villanueva-Meyer J, Molinaro AM, de Groot JF, Butowski NA, Tedesco M, Rabbitt J, Phillips JJ, Hervey-Jumper S, Aghi MK, Berger MS, Chang EF, Chang SM, Solomon DA, Clarke JL. A Genomically Tailored Multiagent Precision Medicine Clinical Trial for Adults with Recurrent Glioblastoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2026 May 01; 32(9):1652-1665. View on PubMed
  2. Young JS, Cho NW, Lucas CG, Najem H, Mirchia K, Chen WC, Tamaki C, Congivaram H, Seo K, Zakimi N, Daggubati V, Casey-Clyde T, Nguyen MP, Chen Z, Phillips JJ, Ozawa T, Aghi MK, Taylor JW, DeRisi JL, Bhaduri A, Berger MS, Heimberger AB, Butowski NA, Spitzer MH, Raleigh DR. IL-6 underlies microenvironment immunosuppression and resistance to therapy in glioblastoma. Cancer Res. 2026 Apr 13. View on PubMed
  3. Vo AH, Libmann M, Carson D, Wang K, Puri S, Butowski N, Winters-Stone K. A Scoping Review of Exercise Oncology in the Primary Brain Tumor Patient-Caregiver Dyad. Curr Oncol. 2026 Mar 30; 33(4). View on PubMed
  4. Colman H, Lombardi G, Wong ET, Walbert T, Eoli M, Lassman AB, Peereboom DM, Kizilbash SH, Kamiya-Matsuoka C, Pitz MW, Strowd RE, Desjardins A, Kumthekar P, Mason W, Pellerino A, Soffietti R, Butowski N, Forsyth PA, Hamza MA, Hau P, Lallana E, Nabors B, Piccioni D, Uhlmann EJ, Welsh LC, Wen PY, Dietrich J, Wang C, Levin VA. STELLAR: Phase III, Randomized, Open-Label Study of Eflornithine Plus Lomustine Versus Lomustine Alone in Patients With Recurrent Grade 3 Astrocytoma. J Clin Oncol. 2026 Mar 10; 44(8):641-652. View on PubMed
  5. Piotrowski AF, Shih K, Giglio P, Colman H, Wen PY, Campian JL, Butowski N, Cloughesy T, Zhu Z, Gisin V, Badruddoja M. Phase Ib/II Study of Pamiparib Plus Radiation Therapy and/or Temozolomide in Adult Patients with Treatment-Naïve or Recurrent/Refractory Glioblastoma. Curr Oncol. 2025 Sep 27; 32(10). View on PubMed
  6. Tran N, Luks TL, Li Y, Jakary A, Ellison J, Liu B, Adegbite O, Nair D, Kakhandiki P, Molinaro AM, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Butowski N, Clarke JL, Chang SM, Braunstein SE, Morin O, Lin H, Lupo JM. Novel radiotherapy target definition using AI-driven predictions of glioblastoma recurrence from metabolic and diffusion MRI. NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Aug 07; 8(1):508. View on PubMed
  7. Weyer-Jamora C, Brie MS, Bracci PM, Smith EM, Luks TL, Phan S, Braunstein SE, Oberheim-Bush NA, Butowski NA, Clarke JL, Gehring K, Aguilera A, de Groot J, Chang SM, Hervey-Jumper SL, Taylor JW. Tele-cognitive rehabilitation for adult lower-grade glioma: An interim prospective pilot feasibility study. Neurooncol Pract. 2026 Feb; 13(1):126-138. View on PubMed
  8. Young JS, Cho NW, Lucas CG, Najem H, Mirchia K, Chen WC, Seo K, Zakimi N, Daggubati V, Casey-Clyde T, Nguyen MP, Chen A, Phillips JJ, Ozawa T, Aghi MK, Taylor JW, DeRisi JL, Bhaduri A, Berger MS, Heimberger AB, Butowski N, Spitzer MH, Raleigh DR. IL-6 underlies microenvironment immunosuppression and resistance to therapy in glioblastoma. bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 14. View on PubMed
  9. Venneti S, Kawakibi AR, Ji S, Waszak SM, Sweha SR, Mota M, Pun M, Deogharkar A, Chung C, Tarapore RS, Ramage S, Chi A, Wen PY, Arrillaga-Romany I, Batchelor TT, Butowski NA, Sumrall A, Shonka N, Harrison RA, de Groot J, Mehta M, Hall MD, Daghistani D, Cloughesy TF, Ellingson BM, Beccaria K, Varlet P, Kim MM, Umemura Y, Garton H, Franson A, Schwartz J, Jain R, Kachman M, Baum H, Burant CF, Mottl SL, Cartaxo RT, John V, Messinger D, Qin T, Peterson E, Sajjakulnukit P, Ravi K, Waugh A, Walling D, Ding Y, Xia Z, Schwendeman A, Hawes D, Yang F, Judkins AR, Wahl D, Lyssiotis CA, Nava D, Alonso MM, Eze A, Spitzer J, Schmidt SV, Duchatel RJ, Dun MD, Cain JE, Jiang L, Stopka SA, Baquer G, Regan MS, Filbin MG, Agar NYR, Zhao L, Kumar-Sinha C, Mody R, Chinnaiyan A, Kurokawa R, Pratt D, Yadav VN, Grill J, Kline C, Mueller S, Resnick A, Nazarian J, Allen JE, Odia Y, Gardner SL, Koschmann C. Correction: Clinical Efficacy of ONC201 in H3K27M-Mutant Diffuse Midline Gliomas Is Driven by Disruption of Integrated Metabolic and Epigenetic Pathways. Cancer Discov. 2025 Mar 03; 15(3):657. View on PubMed
  10. Rodriguez Almaraz E, Guerra GA, Al-Adli NN, Young JS, Dada A, Quintana D, Taylor JW, Oberheim Bush NA, Clarke JL, Butowski NA, de Groot J, Pekmezci M, Perry A, Bollen AW, Scheffler AW, Glidden DV, Phillips JJ, Costello JF, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper S, Berger MS, Francis SS, Chang SM, Solomon DA. Longitudinal profiling of IDH-mutant astrocytomas reveals acquired RAS-MAPK pathway mutations associated with inferior survival. Neurooncol Adv. 2025 Jan-Dec; 7(1):vdaf024. View on PubMed
  11. Lucas CG, Al-Adli NN, Young JS, Gupta R, Morshed RA, Wu J, Ravindranathan A, Shai A, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, de Groot J, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Pekmezci M, Perry A, Bollen AW, Theodosopoulos PV, Aghi MK, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper SL, Raleigh DR, Molinaro AM, Costello JF, Diaz AA, Clarke JL, Butowski NA, Phillips JJ, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. Longitudinal multimodal profiling of IDH-wildtype glioblastoma reveals the molecular evolution and cellular phenotypes underlying prognostically different treatment responses. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Jan 12; 27(1):89-105. View on PubMed
  12. Narsinh KH, Kumar K, Bankiewicz K, Martin AJ, Berger M, Clarke J, Taylor J, Bush NAO, Molinaro AM, Aghi M, Butowski N. A phase I study of convection-enhanced delivery (CED) of liposomal-irinotecan using real-time magnetic resonance imaging in patients with recurrent high-grade glioma. J Neurooncol. 2025 Mar; 172(1):219-227. View on PubMed
  13. Sarkaria JN, Ballman KV, Kizilbash SH, Sulman EP, Giannini C, Friday BB, Butowski NA, Mohile NA, Piccioni DE, Battiste JD, Drappatz J, Campian JL, Mashru S, Jaeckle KA, O'Brien BJ, Dixon JG, Kabat BF, Laack NL, Hu LS, Kaufmann T, Kumthekar P, Ellingson BM, Anderson SK, Galanis E. Efficacy of Adding Veliparib to Temozolomide for Patients With MGMT-Methylated Glioblastoma: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol. 2024 12 01; 10(12):1637-1644. View on PubMed
  14. Kim KS, Habashy K, Gould A, Zhao J, Najem H, Amidei C, Saganty R, Arrieta VA, Dmello C, Chen L, Zhang DY, Castro B, Billingham L, Levey D, Huber O, Marques M, Savitsky DA, Morin BM, Muzzio M, Canney M, Horbinski C, Zhang P, Miska J, Padney S, Zhang B, Rabadan R, Phillips JJ, Butowski N, Heimberger AB, Hu J, Stupp R, Chand D, Lee-Chang C, Sonabend AM. Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1, doxorubicin, and ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier opening: A novel combinatorial immunotherapy regimen for gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2024 Nov 04; 26(11):2044-2060. View on PubMed
  15. Sloan AE, Winter K, Gilbert MR, Aldape K, Choi S, Wen PY, Butowski N, Iwamoto FM, Raval RR, Voloschin AD, Kamiya-Matsuoka C, Won M, Mehta MP. NRG-BN002: Phase I study of ipilimumab, nivolumab, and the combination in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. Neuro Oncol. 2024 09 05; 26(9):1628-1637. View on PubMed
  16. Ledford A, Rodriguez A, Lipinski L, Abad A, Fenstermaker R, Edenfield J, Kanos C, Redjal N, Mansouri A, Zacharia B, Butowski N, Liu J, Han SJ, Ziu M, Cohen AL, Fabiano AJ, Miles K, Rayner M, Thompson J, Tollison K, Azimzadeh P, Holmes L, Gevaert M, DesRochers TM. Functional prediction of response to therapy prior to therapeutic intervention is associated with improved survival in patients with high-grade glioma. Sci Rep. 2024 08 29; 14(1):19474. View on PubMed
  17. Liu J, Jakary A, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Butowski NA, Saloner D, Clarke JL, Taylor JW, Oberheim Bush NA, Chang SM, Xu D, Lupo JM. Automatic Brain Tissue and Lesion Segmentation and Multi-Parametric Mapping of Contrast-Enhancing Gliomas without the Injection of Contrast Agents: A Preliminary Study. Cancers (Basel). 2024 Apr 17; 16(8). View on PubMed
  18. Gibson D, Vo AH, Lambing H, Bhattacharya P, Tahir P, Chehab FF, Butowski N. A systematic review of high impact CpG sites and regions for MGMT methylation in glioblastoma [A systematic review of MGMT methylation in GBM]. BMC Neurol. 2024 Mar 23; 24(1):103. View on PubMed
  19. Arrillaga-Romany I, Gardner SL, Odia Y, Aguilera D, Allen JE, Batchelor T, Butowski N, Chen C, Cloughesy T, Cluster A, de Groot J, Dixit KS, Graber JJ, Haggiagi AM, Harrison RA, Kheradpour A, Kilburn LB, Kurz SC, Lu G, MacDonald TJ, Mehta M, Melemed AS, Nghiemphu PL, Ramage SC, Shonka N, Sumrall A, Tarapore RS, Taylor L, Umemura Y, Wen PY. ONC201 (Dordaviprone) in Recurrent H3 K27M-Mutant Diffuse Midline Glioma. J Clin Oncol. 2024 May 01; 42(13):1542-1552. View on PubMed
  20. Saijo A, Ogino H, Butowski NA, Tedesco MR, Gibson D, Watchmaker PB, Okada K, Wang AS, Shai A, Salazar AM, Molinaro AM, Rabbitt JE, Shahin M, Perry A, Clarke JL, Taylor JW, Daras M, Oberheim Bush NA, Hervey-Jumper SL, Phillips JJ, Chang SM, Hilf N, Mayer-Mokler A, Keler T, Berger MS, Okada H. A combinatory vaccine with IMA950 plus varlilumab promotes effector memory T-cell differentiation in the peripheral blood of patients with low-grade gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2024 02 02; 26(2):335-347. View on PubMed

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