Carver College of Medicine profile

Dr. Allen is an Associate Professor and Physician Scientist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Iowa. Dr. Allen is a redox biochemist with expertise in manipulating metabolic oxidative stress to enhance radiation and chemotherapy effectiveness and reduce associated treatment related toxicities. He is also a practicing Radiation Oncologist who participates in developing clinical trials including the phase I trial demonstrating that pharmacological ascorbate is safe, well tolerated and possibly efficacious when combined with standard of care chemoradiation therapy in pancreatic cancer (NCT01852890).

He is noted for his  dedication and established interest in pursuing translational basic science in the field of metabolic oxidative stress and cancer biology as well as his demonstrated ability to lead pre-clinical and multi-disciplinary clinical translational research teams.

Example Publications

•  Ketogenic diet phase 1 trials using chemo-radiation for head & neck cancer and lung cancer. NCT01975766 and NCT01419587. A phase 1 trial of high dose-ascorbate in glioblastoma multiforme.  NCT01752491. JM Buatti PI; BG Allen, Co-I; A phase 2 trial of pharmacological ascorbate combined with chemotherapy in stage IV non-small cell lung cancer NCT02420314. M Furqan PI, BG Allen Co-PI; A phase 2 trial of pharmacological ascorbate in glioblastoma multiforme. 
• Zahra A, Chang T, Abu Hejleh T, Furqan M, Clamon GH, Bhatia SK, Watkins HM, Mott SL, Ahmann LL, Bodeker KL, Spitz DR, Buatti JM, and Allen BG. Once daily high-dose radiation (≥60 Gy) treatment in limited stage small cell lung cancer. J Oncol Transl Res. 2016; 2(1):108. PMCID: PMC5154686.
• Verma V, Simone CB 2nd, Allen PK, Gajjar SR, Shah C, Zhen W, Harkenrider MM, Hallemeier CL, Jabbour SK, Matthiesen CL, Braunstein SE, Lee P, Dilling TJ, Allen BG, Nichols EM, Attia A, Zeng J, Biswas T, Paximadis P, Wang F, Walker JM, Stahl JM, Daly ME, Decker RH, Hales RK, Willers H,Videtic GM, Mehta MP, Lin SH. Multi-institutional experience of stereotactic ablative radiation therapy for stage I small cell lung cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2017; 97(2):362-371. PMID: 28011047. 
• Plichta K, Camden N, Abu Hejleh T, Clamon GH, Furqan M, Zhang J, Bhatia SK, Smith MC, Buatti JM, Allen BG. SBRT to adrenal metastases provides high local control with minimal toxicity. Adv in Rad Oncol. 2017 PMID: 29204525Allen BG, Weeks DL. Transgenic xenopus laevis embryos can be generated using C31 integrase. Nat Meth. 2005; 2(12); 975-979. PMCID: PMC3552317 . 
• Allen BG, Weeks DL. Using phiC31 integrase to make transgenic Xenopus laevis embryos.  Nat Protoc. 2006; 1(3):1248-57. PMID: 17406408.
• Allen BG, Weeks DL. Bacteriophage C31 integrase mediated transgenesis in xenopus laevis for protein expression at endogenous levels. Methods Mol Biol. 2009; 518:113-122. PMCID: PMC3071032.
• Li YE, Allen BG, Weeks DL. Using C31 integrase to mediate insertion of DNA in xenopus embryos. Methods Mol Biol. 2012; 917:219-230. PMCID: PMC3551469
• Multi-center phase 1 and phase 2 trials of the SOD mimic, GC4419, as a radioprotector in combination with chemoradiation for squamous cell cancer of the head & neck.  NCT01921426.  
• Zahra A, Fath MA, Opat E, Mapuskar KA, Bhatia SK, Ma DC, Lii SNR, Snyders TP, Chenard CA, Eichenberger-Gilmore JM, Bodeker KL, Ahmann L, Smith BJ, Vollstedt SA, Brown HA, Hejleh TA, Clamon GH, Berg DJ, Szweda LI, Spitz DR, Buatti JM, Allen BG. Consuming a ketogenic diet while receiving radiation and chemotherapy for locally advanced lung cancer and pancreatic cancer: The University of Iowa experience of two phase 1 trials. Radiat Res. 2017 (PMID: 28437190)Allen BG, Bhatia SK, Buatti JM, Brandt KE, Lindholm KE, Button AM, Szweda LI, Smith BH, Spitz DR, Fath MA. Ketogenic diets enhance oxidative stress and radio-chemo-therapy response in lung cancer xenografts Clin Cancer Res. 2013; 19(14):3905-3913.  PMCID: PMC3954599 .
• Allen BG, Bhatia SK, Anderson CM, Eichenberger-Gilmore JM, Sibenaller ZA, Mapuskar KA, Schoenfeld HD, Buatti JM, Spitz DR, Fath MA. Ketogenic diets as an adjuvant cancer therapy: History and potential mechanism. Redox Biol. 2014; 2:963-970 PMCID: PMC4215472.
• Schoenfeld JD, Sibenaller ZA, Mapuskar KA, Wagner BA, Cramer-Morales KL, Furqan M, Sandhu S, Carlisle TL, Smith MC, Abu Hejleh T, Berg DJ, Zhang J, Keech J, Parekh KR, Bhatia S, Monga V, Bodeker KL, Ahmann L, Vollstedt S, Brown H, Shanahan Kauffman EP, Schall ME, Hohl RJ, Clamon GH, Greenlee JD, Howard MA, Schultz MK, Smith BJ, Riley DP, Domann FE, Cullen JJ, Buettner GR, Buatti JM, Spitz DR*, Allen BG*. O2·- and H2O2-mediated disruption of Fe metabolism causes the differential susceptibility of NSCLC and GBM cancer cells to pharmacological ascorbate. Cancer Cell. 
• 2017 Apr 10; 31(4):487-500.e8. PMID: 28366679  NIHMS ID: NIHMS857911
• Alexander MS, Wilkes JG, Schroeder SS, Buettner GR, Gibson-Corley K, O’Leary BR, Spitz DR, Buatti JM, Berg DJ, Bodeker KL, Vollstedt S, Brown HA, Allen BG, Cullen JJ. Pharmacological ascorbate reduces radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity and enhances tumor radiosensitization in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Res., September 25 2018  DOI:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-18-1680. NIHMS 1511241

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