Chairs: Shawn Hervey-Jumper, MD, and Mahua Dey, MD

Members: Costas Hadjipanayis, MD, PhD, Edjah Nduom, MD, and Nader Sanai, MD

The Non-Profit Subcommittee is a new subcommittee started this year with the goal of building bridges with non-profit brain tumor groups to promote research, clinical care and advocacy.

The subcommittee members work with groups such as NBTS (National Brain Tumor Society), ABTA (American Brain Tumor Association), Sonntag Foundation, Musella and StacheStrong to raise awareness about brain tumor diagnosis and treatment. May has been formally designated as Brain Tumor Awareness Month and the third Wednesday of the month as GBM Awareness Day. NBTS has advocated for Stop the Wait Act, which has 117 co-sponsors in the United States House of Representatives and 13 co-sponsors in the Senate, the most bi-partisan support this bill has seen to date. The NBTS hosted a GBM Day reception on Capitol Hill on July 25 this year with bipartisan representation from Congress to discuss ongoing efforts to improve Brain tumor funding. NBTS continues to build co-sponsors to ensure this bill can ultimately be included in larger Social Security reforms. NBTS advocated for the recently introduced Bolstering Research and Innovation Now (BRAIN) Act to Congress and will continue to follow its progress.

The Brain Tumor Funders Collaborative, known as the BTFC, continues funding promising brain tumor studies. The BTFC is a consortium comprising the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA), Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada, National Brain Tumor Society (NBTS) and Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. Newcomers to the BTFC include the brain tumor nonprofits StacheStrong and the Southeastern Brain Tumor Foundation (SBTF). They are funding proposals focused on “liquid biopsy” for brain tumors.

Founded in 1973, the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) was the first national advocacy organization committed to funding brain tumor research and providing information and education to patients, caregivers and loved ones. For 50 years, the ABTA has been providing comprehensive resources that support the complex needs of brain tumor patients and caregivers, as well as the critical funding of research in the pursuit of breakthroughs in brain tumor diagnosis, treatment and care. Organized neurosurgery had been an integral part of ABTA leadership with critical Board and Scientific Advisory Council representation from Tumor Section Executive Committee members. New to ABTA is a Featured Clinical Studies Program that seeks to provide patients and caregivers a way to understand and navigate available clinical trials easily. Tumor Section members running clinical trials are invited to register their studies with ABTA. The ABTA Alumni Research Network meeting is being held from September 4 to 6 in Schaumburg, Illinois, and many section members will be in attendance. This meeting is followed by ABTA National Conference for patients with brain tumors and family members.

The Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation has funded more than $150M in brain tumor research since its inception in 2005 and offers various types of grants primarily focused on advancing research and treatment for glioblastoma. The Emerging Adult Glioma Award provides grant support to investigators conducting high-impact, high-reward translational research for glioblastoma ($500,000 over 24 months). This award provides grant support to early-to-mid-career investigators and is intended to support ambitious pilot projects designed to identify drug strategies appropriate for early-phase pharmacodynamic- and pharmacokinetic-driven clinical trials in partnership with the Ivy Brain Tumor Center. The Translational Adult Glioma Grant provides grant support to investigators conducting high-impact, high-reward translational research for glioblastoma ($600,000 over 24 months). This award is intended to support projects designed to contribute to identifying therapies that will impact the survival of patients with brain cancer. Both grants have annual deadlines, with 2025 yet to be announced.

The AANS/CNS Tumor Section encourages members to advocate for the Stop the Wait Act and BRAIN Act by contacting their respective members of Congress and their staff at the local level.