CERN Clinical Trials
The CERN Foundation supported four separate ependymoma clinical trials – two for adult patients and two for pediatric patients.
Our hope in these trials, and in all of our work, is to collect critical data that will advance the treatment of ependymoma.
Open CERN Clinical Trial
CERN 09-02 Trial (Closed)
The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the efficacy of carboplatin and bevacizumab for the treatment of recurrent intracranial low grade or anaplastic ependymoma after failure of one line of chemotherapy. The primary endpoint is progression-free survival (PFS) at one year.
Click here for more details about the trial objectives.
Completed CERN Clinical Trials
CERN 08-01 Trial (Closed)
The pediatric trial focused on introducing novel treatment regimens for patients diagnosed with recurrent ependymoma. The study used a drug called Lapatinib in combination with Avastin, another novel medicine. Lapatinib targets the ERBB1 and ERBB2 pathway, which has been documented to be an important pathway that drives ependymoma cells to proliferate and get new blood supply. Avastin targets Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), a key protein that results in new blood supply to the cancer cells. By using these two medication in combination we monitored the response rates of recurrent ependymoma and compared them to previously used treatment regimens for recurrent ependymoma.
Click here for more details about the trial objectives.
CERN 08-02 Trial (Closed)
The adult trial focused on improving treatment regimens by targeting two important molecular pathways – ERBB1 (also known as epidermal growth factor receptor) and ERBB2 (also known as Her-2) and their relationship to chemotherapy resistance caused by the MGMT protein. Participants were placed on a drug regimen that addresses these two areas and evaluated any effect or improvement in the tumors response to chemotherapy.
Click here for more details about the trial objectives. The CERN Foundation published a news article about the CERN 08-02 trial that explains the impact this trial continues to have on the ependymoma community.
5-FU Trial (Closed)
The phase 0/1 trial was open at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a participating CERN center. This trial is focused on using the drug called 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) to treat children with brain tumors. This goal was to find out the best dose to give children and young adults with relapsed or recurrent ependymoma so that future studies with this drug can be done.
Click here for more details about the trial objectives.
What causes ependymoma?
The ependymoma outcomes and risk project intends to answer the one question that plagues most all patients: Why did this happen to me?