Research And Grants

A Diffuse Midline Glioma Combination/Multimodality Clinical Trial and Investigation

In this project, we will bring a paradigm-shifting treatment approach, which has led to cures of other previously incurable childhood cancers, to diffuse midline glioma (DMG) for the first time: combination, multimodality therapy. Our clinical trial will incorporate radiation, locally delivered chemotherapy directly to the tumor, systemic chemotherapy to the whole brain and spinal cord, and medicine to harness the patient’s own immune system to fight their tumor. These treatments will be given in rational stages of therapy to maximize treatment effectiveness and patient safety. Our team brings extensive expertise and experience with DMG biology, clinical trial design, and each of the components of therapy. Our initial pilot trial is small, highly feasible, and achievable within a 12-18-month period. Most importantly, the trial will not be a static set of treatments. Instead, we will have input from many sources, including a committee of experts, a committee of family members, parallel work we will do in our labs, findings from other trials, and data from our own trial to help us continuously improve our trial treatment. Our overall goal is that this trial will improve over time until we achieve long-term survival for DMG patients with good quality of life.