• Category Marryalyan
  • DATE 27 Sep 2022

COSA Neuro-Oncology Group & COGNO

September 2022

COGNO has had an extremely busy and productive year in 2022 thus far, with many achievements and highlights despite the ongoing challenges in clinical practice, research and clinical trials.

2022 commenced with the excellent news of successful MRFF funding for the Low and Intermediate Grade Glioma Umbrella Study of Molecular Guided TherapieS (LUMOS2) study, an umbrella study for patients with recurrent lower grade (2 and 3) glioma offering systemic therapy options with both biomarker-specific and biomarker agnostic arms. The study is led by Professor Hui Gan, Medical Oncologist, from the ONJCRI, Victoria.

With an increasing number of concepts reviewed by our Scientific Advisory Committee, COGNO’s trials portfolio has continued to grow:

  • Trial Open to Recruitment
    • MAGMA (Multi-Arm GlioblastoMa Australasia Trial) – funded by MRFF, MAGMA is a multi-arm multi-stage, multi-centre, phase III platform trial that aims to assess hypotheses against a common standard-of-care control arm for the management of people with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. Recruitment target of 300 patients across 27 sites currently activated and strong recruitment throughout 2021 / 2022 to date.
  • Trial in Start-Up
    • PersoMed-1 (Personalised Targeted Therapy for Adolescent and Young Adult Medulloblastoma Patients), an international study led by the EORTC, funded in Australia by CanTeen and Cancer Australia. Australian site opening to commence from Q4, 2022 onwards.
    • LUMOS2 - Low and Intermediate Grade Glioma Umbrella Study of Molecular Guided TherapieS study; 4 currently funded arms to open in 2023.
  • Trials in Development
    • PICCOG (A single-arm phase II study of a PARP and Immune Checkpoint inhibitor COmbination for relapsed IDH-mutant high-grade Glioma), funded by the Medical Research Futures Fund (MRFF) to open in 2023.

Very successful events were held in late 2021 and 2022 thus far (all virtual):

  • COGNO Systematic Reviews Workshop – covering systematic reviews of interventions, diagnostic tests and prognosis studies, meta-analyses and living systematic reviews.
  • COGNO Ideas Generation Workshop – with 2 concepts discussed, both with a focus on translational research and blood biomarkers in Glioblastoma.
  • Post ASCO Update – coordinated by COGNO’s Outreach and Education Committee, providing an update on the most significant treatment advances in primary brain cancer presented at ASCO 2022.

Our premiere event, the COGNO Annual Scientific Meeting, 16-18 October 2022 in Brisbane with the theme of “Reconnecting Neuro-Oncology”, will be held in person, in conjunction with the second Australian Brain Cancer Research Alliance (ABCARA) Research Symposium, and the concurrent BTAA Patient Education and Information Forum. International speakers will include: A/Prof Krishna Bhat (Neuropathologist), Prof Veronica Chiang (Neurosurgeon), Dr Frank Saran (Radiation Oncologist) and Dr Mark Bilsky (Neurosurgeon).

Further information can be found on the conference website:

COGNO ASM 2022

COGNO-led publications and presentations included:
 

  • Multi-Arm GlioblastoMa Australasia (MAGMA) trial. Protocol for a multi-arm randomised clinical trial for people affected by glioblastoma. BMJ Open 2022 (accepted). Kong BY, Gedye C et al. 2022
  • NUTMEG: A randomized phase II study of nivolumab and temozolomide versus temozolomide alone in newly diagnosed elderly patients with glioblastoma. Sim, HW, Khasraw et al. Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Scientific Meeting, 2022 Clinical Trials Session - Oral presentation.
  • Genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in VERTU: a randomised phase II trial of veliparib, radiotherapy and temozolomide in patients with unmethylated glioblastoma. Sim, HW, Khasraw et al. Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Scientific Meeting, 2022 poster presentation.
  • Patterns of care in adult histone-mutant glioma – results of an international survey. Yuile, A, Khasraw M, Wheeler H et al. Neuro-oncology Practice 2022: https://doi.org/10.1093/nop/npac047

COGNO membership has continued to increase, currently 904 members.

Associate Professor Eng-Siew Koh MBBS FRANZCR
Chair, COGNO
Chair, COSA Neuro-Oncology Group

Jenny Chow
Executive Officer, COGNO

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