SPORE: Brain Tumore SPORE Grant

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This revised SPORE renewal application represents the efforts of interdisciplinary teams of investigators from the Neuro-Oncology Program of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center to apply their expertise to translational research focused on brain cancer. The proposal has four overall specific objectives: 1) to identify factors that contribute to the likelihood of surviving brain cancer; 2) o identify imaging parameters and linked tissue biomarkers that predict recurrence and outcome in patients with low grade glioma; 3) to develop improved therapies for pediatric brain tumors harboring BRAF mutations; and 4) to improve immunotherapy for brain cancer. At the heart of the proposal are four translational research projects. Project 1 will identify genetic variations associated with survival in low-grade glioma and GBM patients, and will integrate survival genes identified in genome-wide association studies with IDH mutation and other molecular characteristics in the best example of integrative genomics pertaining to glioma survival to date. Project 2 will assess the ability of the spectroscopic markers identified in the previous funding period to predict time to progression and overall survival in low-grade glioma patients. The project also includes a first-ever analysis of the mutations that drive low-grade glioma formation and progression and which may help link genetic alterations to the spectroscopic changes noted. Project 3 is new to this proposal and will build on seminal studies that identified BRAF mutations in pediatric brain tumors. The project will preclinically evaluate new combinations of mechanism-based BRAF, MEK, and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors as well as initiate the first clinical trials of BRAF inhibitors in the pediatric brain tumor population. Project 4 will determine the impact of the PI(3)K//B7-H1 pathway on expansion of immunomodulatory T-cells and macrophages, and will investigate the utility of inhibiting PI(3)K/B7-H1 to augment immunotherapy in a clinical trial for GBM patients. This SPORE proposal also requests support for the Career Development and Developmental Research Programs, and four Cores (Administrative, Biospecimen/Pathology, Animal, and Biostatistics and Clinical) that will support the efforts of the four projects.