Yale Cancer Center Hosting Brain Cancer Research Consortium

NEW HAVEN, CT — Yale Cancer Center will soon be home to a consortium of researchers studying a promising new brain tumor treatment, officials have announced.

The DNA Damage Response Consortium, launched by the National Brain Tumor Society and Yale Cancer Center, will bring together scientists with the goal of advancing a treatment that involves targeting a brain tumor's DNA.

The treatment exploits vulnerabilities in brain tumor cells, which allows doctors to target only the cancerous cells and not normal tissue, said Kirk Tanner, Ph.D., the National Brain Tumor Society's chief scientific officer.

That method has already proven to be effective in treating other types of cancers, Tanner said.

"Our DDR Consortium will rapidly test different drugs against laboratory models and then bring the most promising ones forward to evaluate in early phase clinical trials with the goal of advancing towards regulatory review and ultimately to the market as new treatments for brain tumor patients," Tanner said.

Work will commence "immediately," officials said on Tuesday. It will begin at the Bindra lab, though additional consortium partners plan to join in the near future.

Funding comes from National Brain Tumor Society donors, including StacheStrong, a nonprofit that raises funds and awareness for brain cancer research.

"By focusing on experimental drugs that are either already FDA-approved, in late preclinical translation, or early clinical development, we expect that the consortium's work will accelerate and improve the identification of promising treatments and their translation into patient-centric clinical trials," said David Arons, Ph.D., the National Brain Tumor Society's CEO. "We feel that we can make the most impact for the most patients by going all-in to make this approach a reality."