Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013: a report from the third annual meeting of the International Medulloblastoma Working Group

TY - JOUR

T1 - Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013: a report from the third annual meeting of the International Medulloblastoma Working Group

AU - Gottardo, Nicholas G

AU - Hansford, Jordan R

AU - McGlade, Jacqueline P

AU - Alvaro, Frank

AU - Ashley, David M

AU - Bailey, Simon

AU - Baker, David L

AU - Bourdeaut, Franck

AU - Cho, Yoon-Jae

AU - Clay, Moira

AU - Clifford, Steven C

AU - Cohn, Richard J

AU - Cole, Catherine H

AU - Dallas, Peter B

AU - Downie, Peter

AU - Doz, François

AU - Ellison, David W

AU - Endersby, Raelene

AU - Fisher, Paul G

AU - Hassall, Timothy

AU - Heath, John A

AU - Hii, Hilary L

AU - Jones, David T W

AU - Junckerstorff, Reimar

AU - Kellie, Stewart

AU - Kool, Marcel

AU - Kotecha, Rishi S

AU - Lichter, Peter

AU - Laughton, Stephen J

AU - Lee, Sharon

AU - McCowage, Geoff

AU - Northcott, Paul A

AU - Olson, James M

AU - Packer, Roger J

AU - Pfister, Stefan M

AU - Pietsch, Torsten

AU - Pizer, Barry

AU - Pomeroy, Scott L

AU - Remke, Marc

AU - Robinson, Giles W

AU - Rutkowski, Stefan

AU - Schoep, Tobias

AU - Shelat, Anang A

AU - Stewart, Clinton F

AU - Sullivan, Michael

AU - Taylor, Michael D

AU - Wainwright, Brandon

AU - Walwyn, Thomas

AU - Weiss, William A

AU - Williamson, Dan

AU - Gajjar, Amar

PY - 2014/2/1

Y1 - 2014/2/1

N2 - Medulloblastoma is curable in approximately 70% of patients. Over the past decade, progress in improving survival using conventional therapies has stalled, resulting in reduced quality of life due to treatment-related side effects, which are a major concern in survivors. The vast amount of genomic and molecular data generated over the last 5-10 years encourages optimism that improved risk stratification and new molecular targets will improve outcomes. It is now clear that medulloblastoma is not a single-disease entity, but instead consists of at least four distinct molecular subgroups: WNT/Wingless, Sonic Hedgehog, Group 3, and Group 4. The Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013 meeting, which convened at Bunker Bay, Australia, brought together 50 leading clinicians and scientists. The 2-day agenda included focused sessions on pathology and molecular stratification, genomics and mouse models, high-throughput drug screening, and clinical trial design. The meeting established a global action plan to translate novel biologic insights and drug targeting into treatment regimens to improve outcomes. A consensus was reached in several key areas, with the most important being that a novel classification scheme for medulloblastoma based on the four molecular subgroups, as well as histopathologic features, should be presented for consideration in the upcoming fifth edition of the World Health Organization's classification of tumours of the central nervous system. Three other notable areas of agreement were as follows: (1) to establish a central repository of annotated mouse models that are readily accessible and freely available to the international research community; (2) to institute common eligibility criteria between the Children's Oncology Group and the International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe and initiate joint or parallel clinical trials; (3) to share preliminary high-throughput screening data across discovery labs to hasten the development of novel therapeutics. Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013 was an effective forum for meaningful discussion, which resulted in enhancing international collaborative clinical and translational research of this rare disease. This template could be applied to other fields to devise global action plans addressing all aspects of a disease, from improved disease classification, treatment stratification, and drug targeting to superior treatment regimens to be assessed in cooperative international clinical trials.

AB - Medulloblastoma is curable in approximately 70% of patients. Over the past decade, progress in improving survival using conventional therapies has stalled, resulting in reduced quality of life due to treatment-related side effects, which are a major concern in survivors. The vast amount of genomic and molecular data generated over the last 5-10 years encourages optimism that improved risk stratification and new molecular targets will improve outcomes. It is now clear that medulloblastoma is not a single-disease entity, but instead consists of at least four distinct molecular subgroups: WNT/Wingless, Sonic Hedgehog, Group 3, and Group 4. The Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013 meeting, which convened at Bunker Bay, Australia, brought together 50 leading clinicians and scientists. The 2-day agenda included focused sessions on pathology and molecular stratification, genomics and mouse models, high-throughput drug screening, and clinical trial design. The meeting established a global action plan to translate novel biologic insights and drug targeting into treatment regimens to improve outcomes. A consensus was reached in several key areas, with the most important being that a novel classification scheme for medulloblastoma based on the four molecular subgroups, as well as histopathologic features, should be presented for consideration in the upcoming fifth edition of the World Health Organization's classification of tumours of the central nervous system. Three other notable areas of agreement were as follows: (1) to establish a central repository of annotated mouse models that are readily accessible and freely available to the international research community; (2) to institute common eligibility criteria between the Children's Oncology Group and the International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe and initiate joint or parallel clinical trials; (3) to share preliminary high-throughput screening data across discovery labs to hasten the development of novel therapeutics. Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013 was an effective forum for meaningful discussion, which resulted in enhancing international collaborative clinical and translational research of this rare disease. This template could be applied to other fields to devise global action plans addressing all aspects of a disease, from improved disease classification, treatment stratification, and drug targeting to superior treatment regimens to be assessed in cooperative international clinical trials.

U2 - 10.1007/s00401-013-1213-7

DO - 10.1007/s00401-013-1213-7

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 24264598

VL - 127

SP - 189

EP - 201

JO - ACTA NEUROPATHOL

JF - ACTA NEUROPATHOL

SN - 0001-6322

IS - 2

ER -