Kazia Therapeutics (ASX:KZA) recently attended and participated in the Cancer Moonshot Brain Cancers Forum on Glioblastoma (GBM) and Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) at the White House in Washington DC.
The forum, held on 25 May, brought together patients, caregivers, oncologists, researchers, and government officials to discuss and spur action against rare adult and pediatric cancers.
Forum participants discussed strategies to improve outcomes for GBM and DIPG patients, shared progress in research and drug development, learnt about efforts to accelerate progress, and committed to further action.
Kazia's CEO, Dr John Friend, was invited and participated in this forum. Kazia is focused on developing treatments for GBM and DIPG.
"We were honoured to participate in the Cancer Moonshot forum on adult and pediatric brain cancer alongside global Neuro-Oncology thought leaders, researchers, US government officials and patient advocates," said Dr Friend.
"Kazia is uniquely positioned to add tremendous value to the discussion because our lead clinical asset, paxalisib, is currently engaged in a number of brain tumour studies, including GBM and DIPG."
GBM is the most aggressive and common primary brain cancer, with a five-year survival rate of approximately 10 per cent. Current therapies are limited to surgery, radiation and traditional chemotherapy.
DIPG is a rare childhood tumour of the brain. There is currently no FDA-approved therapy for the disease, and median survival is just 9-11 months from diagnosis.
