UI Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital joins the Children’s Brain Tumor Network
University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital is now a member of the Children’s Brain Tumor Network (CBTN), an international collaborative research effort to accelerate treatments for children with brain tumors. With the addition of Stead Family Children’s Hospital, CBTN membership now includes 35 leading institutions across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States.
Andrew Groves, MD, UI clinical assistant professor of pediatrics – hematology/oncology, will serve as CBTN principal investigator for Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
“We’re thrilled to join CBTN as a member institution to accelerate the pace of discovery on behalf of our patients and families,” Groves says. “By partnering with CBTN experts and researchers worldwide, we can better understand and treat these devastating conditions.”
As a participating CBTN member site, Stead Family Children’s Hospital contributes consented samples of childhood tissue to help advance understanding of childhood brain tumor biology. Each brain tumor tissue sample is deidentified before undergoing genetic sequencing, a process that converts the samples into data to provide the greatest value to researchers worldwide while protecting the privacy of each child.
No single institution can collect enough samples on its own, making collaboration through CBTN an essential step towards more effective treatments for children. Collectively, CBTN’s 35 member institutions have created the world’s most comprehensive repository of childhood brain tumors.
“We’re happy to welcome UI Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital to the CBTN community. This partnership is critical to achieve the CBTN mission and improve outcomes for children and young adults diagnosed with brain and spinal cord tumors,” shared Brian Rood, MD, CBTN Co-Executive Chair.
