Research Group
Oligodendroglioma
Oligodendroglioma is a rare primary brain tumor, with 1,300 Americans are diagnosed with oligodendroglioma annually with ~20,000 Americans living with the disease today. While mostly a disease that affects adults, ~40% of new diagnoses are in patients age 15-39, and 2% are age 15 and under. Like many rare diseases, oligodendroglioma has received little investment in drug development and clinical trials from public funding sources or larger pharmaceutical firms. And while there is a new IDH inhibitor approved for low grade disease, there are no clear options available for higher grade newly diagnosed disease or recurrent oligodendroglioma.
Advances in oligodendroglioma had been underwritten largely from philanthropic support and smaller biotech firms. In addition, over the last 10 years, much of the research activity has been driven by advocacy and funding from families affected by the disease. Until 2024, no new treatments had been developed in the past 25 years, reflecting the fact that few efforts are dedicated to this tumor type. However, in the past five years, the pace of oligodendroglioma research has accelerated and the IDH inhibitor vorasidenib received FDA approval in August 2024. This is the first step towards providing long term tumor control and has increased awareness and excitement around finding better therapies for patients living with oligodendroglioma.
Oligo Nation Clinical Trials Network (ONCTN): The ONCTN is a new initiative introduced in 2026 to rapidly develop, open and successfully accrue to clinical trials specifically through in a multi-institutional consortium, with preclinical and clinical scientists working side-by-side to deliver scientifically relevant trials. This effort is supported by a partnership between Oligo Nation, a foundation formed by families navigating oligodendroglioma, with Pediatric Neuro Oncology Consortium (PNOC) at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and as of 2026, 12 institutions have joined the ONCTN. The ONCTN is one of many efforts at PNOC to deliver age-agnostic, biology-specific clinical trials across the childhood and into adulthood.
