Bristol CED DIPG Trial
Funding Neuro has supported Professor Steven Gill over a number of years in his ground breaking treatments for DIPG using Convection Enhanced Delivery methods. During this time18 children have been treated under compassionate treatment with MHRA (‘Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’) approval and an academic paper on 13 patients was published in the International Journal of Clinical Oncology in January 2021. The conclusions drawn in the paper were that the CED system used was safe and that the drug treatment slowed down the cancer by c.50%. An amazing result!
Unfortunately Renishaw plc, the owners of the CED device used in this treatment have stated that they are unwilling to provide free use of the CED device rendering a full clinical trial uneconomic at this time.
Funding Neuro remains supportive of Professor Gill’s work in this area and are exploring all options.
Dundee Ultrasound Appeal DIPG and Glioblastoma starting 2022
Funding Neuro is working with Dr Kismet Hossain-Ibrahim to raise £400k to purchase an Insightec Ultrasound device. The combination of this device together with a chemical called ALA, provided by SonALAsense, an American company has been proven in safety trials in the USA to safely produce Sonodynamic therapy to reduce the size of cancer tumours within a patient’s skull. Without the need for surgery! MHRA approval is currently being sought for this ground breaking trial which will be heavily funded by SonALAsense.
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Great Ormond Street Hospital (‘GOSH’) Car-T Cell DIPG proposed trial starting 2022
Funding Neuro has been approached by GOSH to assist in funding a DIPG trial starting at GOSH in 2022, subject to MHRA approval.
CAR (“Chimeric Antigen Receptor”)-T cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy whereby the patient’s immune system is engineered to recognise and attack cancer cells. This has been used in blood cancers and may work on non-blood cancers as the CAR-T cells will be attacking the same GD2 element found in cancers in unusually high quantities. GOSH has completed a clinical study of CAR-T cell therapy targeting GD2 in children with relapsed neuroblastoma and now wish to extend to DIPG.
This trial will be a 12 patient trial over 2 years at a cost of c£1.2m and Funding Neuro is looking to fund a substantial part of this alongwith the Lyla Nsouli Foundation and Abby’s Army.
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