Recipient: Professor Nick Gottardo
Institute: ANZCHOG
Funding: $54,095 June 2020 to December 2023
World first for children with newly-diagnosed high-grade glioma with NTRK fusion
High grade gliomas (HGG) are fast growing, aggressive brain cancers and if they recur after initial treatment, there are no effective treatment options. Many children with HGG have a mutation in the NTRK gene. Excitingly, a novel agent larotrectinib has showed to be effective in treating other cancers with NTRK mutations. This study will investigate if a can be of benefit in children diagnosed with HGG containing a NTRK gene. CONNECT-1903 is an international clinical trial that will examine, for the first time, how well the larotrectinib is tolerated and its effectiveness to shrink these tumours in children diagnosed with HGG containing NRTK fusions.
Read more: CONNECT-1903: A new trial for brain cancer now available in Australia
CONNECT-1903 will open at Perth Children’s Hospital, Sydney Children’s Hospital and Queensland Children’s Hospital. It is sponsored by the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology/Oncology Group (ANZCHOG) and is the first trial available from the international brain cancer consortia CONNECT.
This research project has received additional collaborative funding by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Futures Fund and Love for Lachie.