Tessa Jowell BRAIN MATRIX (2024)

The criteria are relatively wide, meaning the 10 UK neurocentres taking part will be able to offer the study to more people than any other brain tumour trial.

Initially, it will be open to any adult who isnewly diagnosedwith a grade 2, 3 or 4 glioma, who is able to undergo a surgical procedure, including biopsy. It will also include adults with recurrent tumours if the clinical team canaccess an appropriatesample of their original tumour.

The team are working hard to broaden the criteria to include children in the near future.

This ground-breaking study is under the leadership of Professor Colin Watts. Colin is Professor of Neurosurgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Chair of the University of Birmingham’s Brain Cancer Program. Along with Birmingham, the initial centres that will be able to recruit people onto this study are in Edinburgh, Leeds, Kings College London, Cambridge, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Oxford.

All of these locations house major referral centres for people with a suspected glioma, and it means that the majority of people in Scotland and England with a brain tumour will come under their care.

In the first phase of the study, everyone who takes part will have surgery or a biopsy. The tumour that is removed will then be tested so participants, and the researchers, will know the molecular profile of their tumour. This is called molecular diagnosis.

All participants will receive the current gold standard treatment, along with added monitoring.

Tessa Jowell BRAIN MATRIXalso asks a surgical question “Is the extent of tumour removal throughsurgery (resection) linked to the molecular diagnosis?” It has previously been reported that the average extent of resection was 73% in patients who have a mutation in a gene called IDH, but only 28% for patients with a tumour where the IDH gene remains normal. Tessa Jowell BRAINMATRIX will look to verify that finding and also test other molecular markers to see if they find similar differences. They will then use this information to better understand the role of surgery in the treatment plan for people with brain tumours.

Everyone on the trial will also contribute their data to BRIAN, ourpioneering app that allows people to track, share and compare their experiences of coping with a brain tumour.

The study has started and is still open and recruiting participants.

A molecular profile looks for changes (mutations) in the tumour profile compared to the non-tumour profiles (in other words, the norm). Different combinations of changes (different molecular profiles) cause different brain tumours.

It’s important to understand what molecular profile a tumour has, because some drugs only work on certain profiles, and this ensures doctors can give treatments that will work best in each case.

Find out more about biomarker testing

One of the most important things that a clinical study can do for the patients of the future is to collect really good quality data from people going through the new treatments. The data will be used to find patterns in treatment-response and to form new questions that need to be researched.

All the participants of the Tessa Jowell BRAIN MATRIX study will be contributing their information to BRIAN. As this is an inbuilt part of the study, the data collected will be more complete, and therefore of the best quality possible.

A great strength of BRIAN is that it will collect data from clinical sources (i.e. doctors) but it will also enable participants to record their own observations too. In this way people will be able to share what it is really like to be living with a brain tumour, and they will be able to compare their experiences with others going through the same thing.

If you are living with a brain tumour and interested in contributing to BRIAN, you don’t have to be on any studies, just follow the link below to sign up today.

Sign up to BRIAN