Assistant Professor
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He completd his MD/PhD training at The Oho State University followed by neurosurgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. He subsequently completed a neusorugical oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. His clinical practice focuses on treating primary and metastatic tumors of the spine in addition to brain metastases. He runs a translational research laboratory studying the unique tumor microenvironmental features of brain and spine metastases along with primary tumors of the spine. These efforts integrate an analysis of the cellular composition and associated cellular interactions of these tumors along with genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional factors that predispose for tumor formation and treatment resistance. This work includes animal modeling to decipher key steps in brain and spine metastasis formation while also providing a framework to explore novel treatment approaches of these tumors. Additionally, I am in interested in utilizing immunotherapeutic approaches such as oncolytic viral therapy alone and in combination with immune modulating agents in vivo. Building upon these pre-clinical studies, I am particularly interested in exploring these immunotherapeutic strategies in the clinical setting.