A Retrospective Genomic Landscape of 661 Young Adult Glioblastomas Diagnosed Using 2016 WHO Guidelines for Central Nervous System Tumors.

The authors present a cohort of 661 young adult glioblastomas diagnosed using 2016 WHO World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System, utilizing comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) to explore their genomic landscape and assess their relationship to currently defined disease entities. This analysis explored variants with evidence of pathogenic function, common copy number variants (CNVs), and several novel fusion events not described in literature. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) mutational signatures, anatomic location, and tumor recurrence are further explored.

A living ex vivo platform for functional, personalized brain cancer diagnosis.

Functional precision medicine platforms are emerging as promising strategies to improve pre-clinical drug testing and guide clinical decisions. We have developed an organotypic brain slice culture (OBSC)-based platform and multi-parametric algorithm that enable rapid engraftment, treatment, and analysis of uncultured patient brain tumor tissue and patient-derived cell lines. The platform has supported engraftment of every patient tumor tested to this point: high- and low-grade adult and pediatric tumor tissue rapidly establishes on OBSCs among endogenous astrocytes and microglia while maintaining the tumor's original DNA profile.

The children's brain tumor network (CBTN) - Accelerating research in pediatric central nervous system tumors through collaboration and open science.

Pediatric brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related death in children in the United States and contribute a disproportionate number of potential years of life lost compared to adult cancers. Moreover, survivors frequently suffer long-term side effects, including secondary cancers. The Children's Brain Tumor Network (CBTN) is a multi-institutional international clinical research consortium created to advance therapeutic development through the collection and rapid distribution of biospecimens and data via open-science research platforms for real-time access and use by the global research community.

Pilot study to determine effect of an altruism intervention focusing on herd immunity to enhance influenza vaccination rates.

Objective: A prospective, single-arm clinical trial was conducted to evaluate an altruism-tailored educational intervention to improve parental attitudes and vaccine uptake in vaccine-hesitant parents.

Methods: Vaccine-hesitant parents at two primary care sites, spanning two influenza seasons from 2020 to 2021 were provided an intervention (spoken and written communication) which highlighted altruistic benefits of accepting the seasonal influenza vaccine to optimize herd immunity to help protect pediatric cancer patients. Eligible parents included those with children eligible for the seasonal influenza vaccine, those who were proficient in English, and those with scores on the adjusted Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (aVHS) suggesting vaccine hesitancy (score ≥ 3).