China joins an international partnership to launch GBM AGILE, a project that would further improve clinical trials for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of brain cancer.
The country’s medical experts will work with their counterparts from Australia, Europe and the U.S., reported the Global Times.
GBM AGILE will be composed of “neuro-surgeons, neuro-oncologists, basic and clinical investigators as well as representatives from the GBM advocacy community,” according to Melbourne-based Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI).
“The innovation comes from a determination by this group to effect great change and what they call a ‘coalition of the willing,’ which is really around a value system of integrity and the desire to serve the needs of patients over the needs of sciences," said Catherine Stace, the CEO of Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, as published on the foundation’s official website.
The foundation calls GBM AGILE as “the biggest international collaboration in the history of brain cancer research.”
Michelle Stewart, head of the foundation’s research strategy, said that GBM AGILE “would revolutionize” clinical trials, reported The Courier-Mail.
Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, according to its website, is the “largest dedicated funder of brain cancer research in Australia.” Its mission “is to accelerate new treatments to brain cancer patients and increase five-year survival to 50 percent by 2023.”
Dr. Charles “Charlie” Teo, an Australian neurosurgeon born to Chinese-Singaporean parents, founded the organization in 2001.
English-born Australian singer-songwriter-actress Olivia Newton-John supports the GBM AGILE via ONJCRI.
A breast cancer survivor, Newton-John said in a video recorded to proclaim her support for GBM AGILE that her decision is “very personal.” GBM claimed the life of her sister in 2013.
Cancer Research UK said that the types of brain tumors total to about 130.
Often described as the most common type of brain tumor, GBM is “usually highly malignant (cancerous),” according to the American Brain Tumor Association.
In the end, it all boils down to getting strength from one another. After all, Cure Brain Cancer refers to GBM AGILE “not just a science story,” but also as “a story of courage and humanity.”