About the Authors

Ahmed A. Alkhateeb

Affiliation Department of Neurosurgery, The Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Kim Leitzel

Affiliation Division of Hematology-Medical Oncology, The Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Suhail M. Ali

Affiliations Division of Hematology-Medical Oncology, The Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Medicine, Lebanon VA Medical Center, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Cynthia Campbell-Baird

Affiliation Division of Hematology-Medical Oncology, The Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Matthew Evans

Affiliation Division of Hematology-Medical Oncology, The Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Eva-Maria Fuchs

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Wolfgang J. Köstler

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Allan Lipton

Affiliation Division of Hematology-Medical Oncology, The Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America

James Connor

jconnor@hmc.psu.edu

Affiliation Department of Neurosurgery, The Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JC AA AL WK. Performed the experiments: AA SA. Analyzed the data: AA SA KL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SA KL CC ME EF WK. Wrote the paper: AA. Collection of sample: CC ME EF WK KL AL.