Adult Brain Tumor Consortium

The Adult Brain Tumor Consortium (ABTC) is a new multi-institutional consortium created from the consolidation of two previous, separate NCI-funded consortia: the New Approaches to Brain Tumor Therapy (NABTT) and the North American Brain Tumor Consortium (NABTC). The newly formed ABTC permits NABTT and NABTC investigators to continue their research, but focuses management of their clinical program into a single entity.

ABTC is supported through a U01 Cooperative Agreement from the NCI. The consortium performs innovative, multidisciplinary Phase 1 - 2 clinical trials that focus predominantly on adult patients with grade IV gliomas (glioblastoma multiforme). ABTC's objectives are:

• to perform multidisciplinary clinical trials using surgery, radiation and systemic therapies
• to combine targeted agents in appropriate combination regimens
• to incorporate pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic endpoints as appropriate into clinical trials testing novel agents
• to evaluate novel imaging endpoints in clinical trials
• to foster collaborations with other researchers in the field, including the NCI-funded brain tumor SPORES and Cooperative Groups

The ABTC consists of investigators at premier institutions across the United States. ABTC, and especially through its predecessors NABTT and NABTC, have demonstrated that clinical trials are not only possible in this challenging tumor type, but represent the best hope for making further progress against this devastating disease.