ABTC Objectives

The newly consolidated consortium strives to develop more effective therapies for adult brain tumors by:

• Safely and efficiently introducing novel anti-cancer agents into the treatment of high grade primary brain tumors through the conduct of Phase 1-2 clinical trials
• Proactively seeking collaborations with other NCI-funded clinical trial mechanisms and researchers devoted to finding promising new treatment approaches for adult brain tumors
• Incorporating pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic endpoints ( including imaging and translational laboratory studies ) as appropriate in Phase 1-2 studies

ABTC History

The National Cancer Institute ( NCI ) has funded CNS consortia since 1993. Originally three were funded: NABTT ( Project Leader Stuart Grossman, MD ), NABTC ( Project Leader Michael Prados, MD ), and NCNSC ( Project Leader WK Alfred Yung, MD ). Each consisted of approximately 6 members institutions, a pharmacokinetics center, and data management center. In 1997, the NCNSC merged into NABTC, moved the data management center to the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and added new member institutions. NABTT also added new member intitutions, so that each consortium consisted of about 9 institutions. In January 2009, the NCI mandated a merge of NABTC and NABTT to form the Adult Brain Tumor Consortium ( ABTC ). ABTC will employ the Johns Hopkins Central Office as its data management center. The directors of the ABTC consortium are Drs. Stuart Grossman ( John Hopkins University ) and Michael Prados ( University of California, at San Francisco ).