NIH launches biomarker testing for CNS tumours in children

In support of President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot goal of fostering data sharing in cancer research, the National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has launched the Molecular Characterisation Initiative for paediatric tumours. This programme offers tumour molecular characterisation, also called biomarker testing, to children, adolescents, and young adults with newly diagnosed central nervous system tumours who are being treated at hospitals that are affiliated with the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), an NCI-supported clinical trials group that includes more than

200 hospitals and institutions that treat most children diagnosed with cancer in the United States. The Molecular Characterisation Initiative is offered through NCI’s Childhood Cancer

Data Initiative, which was launched in 2019 to promote data sharing and collection of new data among researchers who study childhood cancers. Children, adolescents, and young adults diagnosed with a central nervous system cancer across the United States will be eligible to receive molecular characterisation of their tumours free of charge through this voluntary programme.