Fourth Centre announcement and BNOS Young Investigator Award 2023

3 min read

Brain Tumour Research was delighted to announce this week that The Institute of Cancer Research will be the charity’s fourth Centre of Excellence, with a funding agreement of £2.5 million. The new Centre will be led by Professor Chris Jones, who has ambitious plans to identify new treatments for paediatric-type diffuse high-grade gliomas – which include those previously known as brainstem glioma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) – occurring in children and young adults.

Professor Jones and his team will identify, assess, and validate new therapeutic targets, generating the laboratory data needed to support the launch of new clinical trials. Their work spans the gap between basic biology and clinical benefit for children and young adults with high grade glioma

Research:

Refining the Intraoperative Identification of Suspected High-Grade Glioma Using a Surgical Fluorescence Biomarker: GALA BIDD Study Report Researchers have demonstrated in a prospective multi-centre cohort study that 5ALA-based fluorescence as a surgical biomarker is sensitive and specific for high-grade disease within an intrinsic glioma mass. Published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine, the research also demonstrates that it can enhance local intraoperative neuropathology diagnosis. They suggest that 5ALA may help as an adjunct diagnostic surgical biomarker for challenging low-grade glioma cases with clinical suspicion of transformation to higher-grade disease, but further research is required.

Brain Tumour Breakthrough: New Cancer Vulnerability Discovered Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Duke University have uncovered high levels of Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) receptors (LDLR) on the blood vessels supplying high-grade glioma brain tumours, both adult and paediatric. The study, published in Pharmaceutics, suggests that the increased LDLR’s could be considered for LDL-mediated nanoparticle/drug delivery to potentially circumvent tumour heterogeneity in both age cohorts.

Treatments:

Servier's Pivotal Phase 3 INDIGO Trial Investigating vorasidenib in IDH-Mutant Low-Grade Glioma Meets Primary Endpoint of Progression-Free Survival (PFS) and Key Secondary Endpoint of Time to Next Intervention (TTNI) The interim analysis of the trial demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in both progression-free survival and time to next intervention in patients randomized to vorasidenib monotherapy compared to patients randomized to placebo. Patients enrolled in the INDIGO study had residual or recurrent grade 2 oligodendroglioma or astrocytoma with an IDH1 or IDH2 mutation and had undergone surgery as their only treatment for glioma prior to study enrolment. The Phase 3 INDIGO trial results will be presented at an upcoming medical meeting.

Opportunities:

BNOS Young Investigator Award 2023 We are pleased to announce that we are once again co-sponsoring the BNOS Young Investigator Award and nominations for 2023 are invited.

BNOS is looking for a young researcher who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of neuro-oncology in the UK. The recipient of the award will be invited to speak during a dedicated session at the BNOS Annual Conference in Manchester 5-7 July 2023, for which their conference fees will be waived. In addition, the recipient will receive an award of £2,000 to attend one (or more) other neuro-oncology conference in the year of the award.

Nominations should be submitted via email to Liz@bnos.org.uk by midnight Monday 3 April 2023.

Nominations will be circulated to a panel of BNOS Council members for review and the successful candidate will be notified by 1 May 2023. The panel decision is final.

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