The CBTTC has a rare collection of medulloblastoma CSF, with matched tumor and blood tissue. For us to perform our assays to detect CSF-tDNA, we ideally will need all three tissues, which is difficult to accrue at any one medical center given the rarity of medulloblastoma.
We already have an IRB approved protocol that allows us to collect tumor tissue, blood and CSF at the time of surgery and from each lumbar puncture performed as part of routine standard of care. Additional samples from that being requested by the CBTTC are being accrued from patients treated at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Unfortunately, we are able to enroll 1-2 patients a year into our study, which is not sufficient to conduct our experiment. We also have grants from the NIH and Alex’s Lemonade Stand that will support this work.
