The Harvard Pediatric Brain Tumor Center will join the Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinical Trials Consortium, endorse its Constitution, participate in committee activities, give absolute priority to Consortium protocols, and collaborate with other Consortium members. Our multi-disciplinary group is committed to: 1) Ensuring that, each year, more than 15 patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent brain tumors are available for Consortium studies; 2) Acting as a resource for the Consortium in those areas where our expertise will assist the Consortium in ensuring its success; our commitment to being a resource will include members from all areas, including our departments of Neurosurgery, Radiation Oncology, Oncology, Neurology, Pathology, Radiology, Gene Therapy and Angiogenesis. 3) Proposing novel studies that meet the Consortium's goals. In that regard, we have already developed three proposals: i) Phase I study of endostatin, an angiogenic inhibitor, in pediatric patients with poor prognosis malignancies; ii) Phase I study of GM3, a novel ganglioside in pediatric patients with malignant brain tumors; iii) a Phase I study of oxaliplatin as a radiation sensitizer in pediatric brain stem gliomas. 4) Developing and expanding a pediatric brain tumor tissue bank. We will cooperate with Consortium partners to develop a new central tissue bank or a virtual tissue bank. On request, we will also make material from the Harvard Brain Tumor Tissue Bank, which currently has over 1500 adult and 200 pediatric samples, available to Consortium members. 5) Continuing to develop our current expertise in several areas, including: anti-angiogenic molecules (Dr. Judah Folkman); biodegradable wafers containing endostatin (Dr. Peter Black); novel gene therapy vectors (Dr. Richard Mulligan); proton beam and stereotactic radiation therapy (Dr. Nancy Tarbell); small molecule signal transduction inhibitors (Dr. Chuck Stiles); Multivoxal high resolution magnetic resonance spectroscopy (Dr. Aria Tzika); and molecular characterization of brain tumors (Dr. David Louis). In summary, we will bring the full thrust of a Comprehensive Cancer Center and the full services of a pediatric center to enhance the Consortium and our mutual missions.
