Welcome to Liverpool, England for the 17th ISPNO meeting! With attendees from an inter-disciplinary range of pediatric oncology and neuro-oncology medical and scientific fields from across the globe, over 1100 participants descended on this beautiful city for a 3 day conference on June 12-15, 2016 to share, network and advance the overall scientific agenda for all pediatric brain tumors. There were sessions on a wide spectrum of brain tumors including DIPG, Medulloblastoma, High Grade, low grade and many others. The pediatric low grade tumor session, co-chaired by Dr. Mark Kieran and Dr. Stefan Pfister, included a 2.5 hour session with presentations from 7 different world-renowned clinicians/researchers. A number of these presentations were videotaped and can be viewed as follows:
- LGG post-NGS: a growing smorgasbord of molecular sub entities – Dr. David Jones – German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg
- Type II RAF Inhibitors inhibit BRAF mutations and truncated fusions in pediatric low-grade gliomas – Dr. Karen Wright – Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
- Pediatric low-grade gliomas with CRAF gene fusions respond differentially to targeted therapeutics based on dimerization profiles – Dr. Payal Jain – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
- MYB-QKI rearrangements in angiocentric glioma drive tumorigenicity through a tripartite mechanism – Dr. Pratiti Bandopadhayay – Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
- Inferior outcome and poor response to conventional therapies in pediatric low-grade gliomas harboring the BRAF V600E mutation – Dr. Alvaro Lassaletta – Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto
- PLGA Session Recap ISPNO 2016 – Dr. Mark Kieran – Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
- WHO Classification Update 2016 – What’s New for Pediatric Brain Tumors? – Dr. David Ellison – St. Judes Children’s Hospital
Changing the outcome for all children battling brain tumors is of the highest priority for this esteemed group and momentum continues to pick up speed as these, and others from around the world, are turning their attention to finding more effective treatments. Additional information about the 17th ISPNO is available here. Planning is already underway for ISPNO 2018, to be held in Denver, Colorado in June 2018.