NIH Launches New Pediatric Cancer Biomarker Testing Program

The National Institutes of Health, under the National Cancer Institute, recently unveiled a new initiative that will provide biomarker testing to young adults, adolescents and children who have been diagnosed with tumors afflicting the central nervous system. The tests will be offered to pediatric patients with this cancer who are receiving treatment at hospitals affiliated with a clinical trial group supported by the National Cancer Institute known as the Children’s Oncology Group, which includes more than 200 institutions and hospitals that treat children diagnosed with various cancers in the United States.

Those eligible will receive tumor molecular characterization without charge via this voluntary program, which will be provided via the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative. The initiative was launched a couple of years ago to promote the gathering of new data and data sharing among scientists who’ve studied childhood cancers.

This process will involve RNA and DNA from blood and tumor samples being collected for an analysis designed to help oncologists give accurate diagnoses and also understand what’s driving or causing the cancer. Having an accurate diagnosis based on a tumor’s molecular characteristics allows physicians to choose the least-toxic and most-effective treatment for every child.

Additionally, more information on the molecular changes observed in pediatric cancers can also enable scientists to better understand the causes of these cancers and speed up the development of better, less-toxic and more-effective treatments, particularly for rare pediatric cancers, which have few treatment options.

Before biomarker testing was available to all, children had to be treated at institutions with resources with these advanced diagnostics or enroll in some clinical trials. Now tumor molecular characterization will be made available to all children across the country, with the new initiative also allowing data to be gathered in a central location, which will make it easier for pediatric cancer researchers to analyze the data for future studies.

Dr. Maryam Fouladi, the committee leader for central nervous system tumor disease in the Children’s Oncology Group, stated that an accurate diagnosis could help inform treatments for every patient, noting that some pediatric cancers could be misdiagnosed, which makes it harder for physicians to offer optimal treatments and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.

Enrollment for the program will be provided via a childhood cancer registry known as Project: Every Child, with initial participants including adolescents, children who were recently diagnosed and young adults aged 25 and below. The program will expand to include soft tissue sarcoma and other rare tumors later in the year.

This biomarker testing program complements the work being done by for-profit companies such as CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) to unravel the mysteries surrounding some of the most hard-to-treat central nervous system cancers afflicting an increasing number of people around the globe.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP

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