Despite aggressive treatment strategies, children diagnosed with high-grade gliomas (HGG) have only a 10% to 20% chance of survival. Immunotherapy, or harnessing the patient’s own immune system to target and remove brain tumour cells, has emerged as an effective treatment for some previously incurable adult cancers. 

NICHE-HGG also known as PNOC-019, has been developed by the international trial consortium, Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium, with study sites planned across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, for children with HGG. That means, children in Australia and New Zealand diagnosed with this disease will have early access to this innovative trial.

As of April 2022, seven sites are open to recruitment, with one patient enrolled at Westmead Children’s Hospital, Sydney. A modification to expand eligibility criteria has now been approved so it is anticipated recruitment will increase as the trial progresses.

“This highly innovative and cutting-edge brain cancer research study is the first to examine the impact of neoadjuvant administration of checkpoint inhibitors in children and young adults with recurrent HGG and will provide vital data to indicate if checkpoint point inhibition is a desperately needed therapeutic option for these children.” says Prof Nick Gottardo.

Professor Gottardo is the Principal Investigator and is funded by the Foundation through a 2020 grant, worth $191,136. “Funding from Cure Brain Cancer Foundation has enabled this important trial to be available for children’s brain cancer research in Australia and New Zealand”, he adds.

The immunotherapy drugs are given in a novel way before surgical resection of the brain cancer to prime the body’s immune response against the cancer cells, to trigger a stronger anti-cancer effect when the drugs are given again after the brain cancer has been resected during surgery.  This is desperately needed, as there are limited treatment options for these children once their front-line therapies fail.

Dr. Hamza Anwer, Head of Research at Cure Brain Cancer Foundation says, “Brain cancer kills more children than any other disease, and treatment options are far and few. It is simply not acceptable; we owe a better future to our children. Trials like NICHE-HGG offer hope to families and children impacted by this terrible disease and is a sign of the progress of brain cancer research in Australia.”

NICHE-HGG is a collaborative effort of the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, Love for Lachie, and Robert Connor Dawes to fund clinical trial NICHE-HGG for children and young adults. The trial is sponsored by ANZCHOG in Australia and New Zealand.