After two very exciting but very long days of ‘NF2: State of the Art’, CTF kept about 20 scientists and clinicans on for a small workshop: ‘NF2: State of the Trial’. The background to this is that in 2007, CTF convened an expert NF2 group to figure out how we could accelerate NF2 clinical trials (at that time, not much was going on, certainly less than today). The outcome recommendations from this meeting – detailing how NF2 trials could be effectively done – were published in 2009 but were acted on much sooner by the docs, with the inception of clinical trials of bevacizumab (Avastin) Phase II, PTC 299 Phase II, and lapatinib Phase Zero as well as significant advancements in preclinical drug testing. Therefore we felt it to be time to reconvene the experts to ask are we doing as much as we can? What recommendations if any need to be updated? And, what resources are needed from CTF and other agencies (DOD, NIH) to support this?
The outcome recommendations from the workshop are still to be distilled but in brief the group, under the auspices of CTF, is going to be publishing an UPDATE to the clinical trial recommendations just published last year – such has been the pace of progress! Looking ahead CTF will also be driving much more communication and collaboration between the ‘mouse guys’ and the ‘clinical guys’ – cross talk that will be essential to keep drilling and find the next promising drugs. Meningioma trials were discussed as a future focus in addition to further vestibular schwannoma focused trials. The NF2 clinicians are commited to commencing all-important discussions with the FDA, important to help this agency be familiar with NF2 in asvance of submitting drug applications. And importantly the group assembled has pledged to meet again one year from now and annually thereafter.
It has been a terrific few days of NF2 meetings and everyone left today feeling truly inspired about the future of NF2 trials. Look for a full report on the meeting soon at www.ctf.org!
CTF NF2 Trial Workshop Yields Guideline Updates, New Collaborations
