Our January blog announced that the time had come for the pediatric childhood community to rally behind a common goal: to reduce childhood brain cancer deaths 50% by 2030. This requires the full engagement of the entire pediatric cancer community, with a collective commitment to three strategic imperatives:
· Create a Comprehensive Brain Tumor Database
· Leverage Generative AI
· Develop Nontoxic Treatments
Realizing these strategic imperatives will require a fundamental shift in the culture of the pediatric cancer community, centered around:
· · Collaboration: pool /share research initiatives, resources, data and funding.
· Focus: harness more resources behind fewer initiatives.
An overview of the pediatric cancer brain tumor community follows:
· Research Sector: This includes all pediatric cancer research institutions that are not part of the private sector. From a planning perspective, it is important to note that five of the organizations account for most of the research while two hundred institutions belong to the Children’s Oncology Group.
· Nonprofits: It is estimated that 50% of pediatric cancer research funding comes from nonprofits. This sector can be divided into two categories:
o The ten largest nonprofits that account for 80% of pediatric cancer research funding.
o Smaller nonprofits that are members of a pediatric brain tumor coalition or network.
· Public Sector: Principal participants are federal government entities, the National Cancer Instititute (NCI Funding/Policy and Cancer Research Centers), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and Legislators. While NCI manages the bulk of the load, each department is important.
· Private Sector: there are two primary segments, pharmaceuticals and technology (tech) companies.
o Pharmaceutical Companies: historically, this industry’s participation has been limited in the pediatric space. Recent legislation now requires a greater contribution and involvement by applying learnings from adult brain tumor research.
o Tech Companies: Companies involved with artificial intelligence (AI) can play a transformative role in accelerating the pace of pediatric brain tumor cancer discovery through data analysis, precision medicine, and more.
In the following blogs of this series, we will outline the expectations from each sector within the pediatric cancer brain tumor community.
