Four international associations of families gather 300,000 euros to investigate the gliomatosis cerebri
Four foundations from France, the United States and Spain, created by parents whose children died from the rare brain tumor gliomatosis cerebri, have joined together to finance the first international research grant between research centers in different countries on this rare type of brain cancer. The Request for Applications for this grant has been published on the website of the III Conference for the Research of Pediatric Gliomatosis Cerebri https://www.gliomatosiscerebricongress.com/en/grant/. The initiative emerged from this conference which was held in Barcelona last September as a collaboration of researchers and families.
This first international call for research, for specific multi-institutional projects on gliomatosis cerebri, which will grant 300,000 euros, will be funded at this time by the Izas, la princesa guisante (the intiator of this grant), the French associations Franck, un rayon de soleil and Mathys, un rayon de soleil, and the US AYJ Fund. The grant remains open to other possible international collaborations.
As Mónica Sarasa, director of the Izas, la princesa guisante, explains, “we know that the only way to find a treatment or cure is research, and we want to support the hard work of researchers as much as possible. It is our commitment to collaborate in this effort. ”
The III Conference for the Research of Pediatric Gliomatosis Cerebri, brought together pediatric neurooncologists from leading cancer centers worldwide and researchers in basic, pharmacological and immunological research in brain cancer in children and adolescents, and in particular, in high-grade invasive gliomas. Additionally, 14 families attended and met with professionals in joint work sessions attended, to promote collaboration and communication between those affected and the scientific community. The conference was organized by the Spanish association Izas, la princesa guisante, co-organized by the French association Franck, un rayon de soleil, and financially supported by additional family foundations (video).
The organizing medical committee was led by Andrés Morales MD, clinical director of Oncology and the Neuro-oncology program of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona. Katherine Warren MD, clinical director of the Department of Neuro-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston (United States), and Christof Kramm MD, head of the Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology at the University Medical Center of Göttingen, in Germany . The previous conferences were held at Curie Institute in France (2015) and the National Institutes of Health, USA (2017).
The research of gliomatosis cerebri, of which there was little data or studies less than seven years ago, advances, although we are still far from discovering effective treatments.
AYJ Fund, Franck un rayon de soleil and Izas, la princesa guisante, have been working collaboratively since 2015, Mathys un rayon de soleil, created more recently, has joined this effort and vision of these organizations, working together to advance research.
