Ivy Foundation awards nearly $10M for new patient-focused brain cancer research projects

Today, the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation (Ivy Foundation), announced that it is funding roughly $10 million for four new patient-focused research projects. As with all Ivy Foundation awards, these projects focus on improving the survival and quality of life for people with brain tumors but also specifically address new strategies to improve treatment development.

“Consistent with our commitment to keeping the patient and relevant clinical issues front and center, we are funding four projects that focus on optimizing the efficiency of therapeutics development for adults with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM),” said Catherine Ivy, Founder of the Ivy Foundation. “GBM is one of the most aggressive cancers and is the type of brain cancer my husband Ben, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy and too many other people have suffered from.”

In June 2009, the Ivy Foundation issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) which reflected the Foundation’s long-term strategic plan as well as direct feedback from those working in the field. The Foundation organized discussions with researchers and clinicians to better understand challenges in the development of therapeutics and appropriately define parameters of “success.”

The Foundation received more than 100 proposals from researchers in the U.S. and internationally. These proposals were evaluated by the Ivy Foundation 2009 Scientific Reviewer Network, an independent group of researchers and clinicians from academia, government and industry who volunteer their time to provide scientific critiques of research proposals.

The Ivy Foundation Board of Directors selected research projects of the highest scientific merit and best degree of fit with the objectives of the RFP. “As a foundation, we fund research that has the potential for ‘high reward,’ as defined by impact on clinical care for patients with brain tumors,” said Rob Tufel, Executive Director of the Ivy Foundation. “This year’s research awards represent a new strategy in the fight against brain tumors.”

The Ivy Foundation 2009 Awards focus on imaging, gene expression, signaling pathways and pathway activation including the creation of a new clinical trials consortium involving five major brain tumor centers.

2009 Ivy Foundation Award Recipients

• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

  Ronald A. DePinho, MD, and Lynda Chin, MD, “Systematic functional interrogation of the GBM genome for curative combination therapy”

• Duke University

  John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, M.H.Sc. and Joseph R. Nevins, PhD, “Using Genomic Signatures to Predict Combination Therapy in GBM”

• Stanford University

  Sanjiv Gambhir, MD, PhD and Andrei Iagaru, MD, “18F PPRGD2 PET/CT, 18F FDG PET/CT and MRI Evaluation of Response to Anti-Angiogenesis Therapy in Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme”

• University of California, San Francisco
  Michael Prados, MD, “Ivy Foundation Early Phase Clinical Trials Consortium”
  • University of California Los Angeles, Timothy Cloughesy, MD
  • The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Mark Gilbert, MD and WKA Yung, MD
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Ingo Mellinghoff, MD
  • Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Patrick Wen, MD and Tracey Batchelor, MD, MPH

“Each of the four 2009 Ivy Foundation Awards projects are working to address the same challenge of enhancing our scientific understanding and in turn improving treatment options from four distinct approaches,” said Dr. William Timmer, Program Director at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Ivy Foundation Scientific Reviewer Network member. “I am excited to see what insight this combined effort – at this significant level of funding – will uncover.”

In its first two years of funding, the Ivy Foundation has committed $22M to research making it the largest private funder of brain cancer research. “We are investing a significant amount of funding in these projects and we have clear expectations of our researchers.” said Catherine Ivy. “As continued funding is milestone based, we work closely with all of the research teams to ensure they achieve their aims and progress according to their timeline.”