History of NANT

Forty-five percent of children with neuroblastoma have high-risk disease, which nearly always has spread throughout the body when first diagnosed. From 1991 to 1996, the Children's Cancer Group (CCG, now part of the Children's Oncology Group or COG) conducted a five-year study of more than 500 children that showed a three-fold improvement in disease-free survival for high-risk patients and established a new treatment standard. The therapy that resulted in this improved survival consisted of high-dose chemotherapy, irradiation, transplantation of the patient's own bone marrow cleansed of tumor cells, and treatment with a vitamin A - like drug, 13-cis-retinoic acid. These therapies, tested and proved in the CCG trial, were based upon laboratory and clinical studies conducted by New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) consortium investigators. Even with this improvement, only approximately 40% of children with high-risk neuroblastoma survive for five years after diagnosis without tumor recurrence.

To further improve treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma, we are focusing on developing new therapies that are effective against neuroblastoma cells resistant to chemotherapy, irradiation, and retinoic acid. To accelerate finding new and better treatments for neuroblastoma, we submitted a multi-investigator Program Project Grant (PPG) proposal entitled "Biology and Therapy of High-Risk Neuroblastoma" to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) with Dr. Robert C. Seeger at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles as the Principal Investigator. The proposal received an outstanding score from reviewers, and the NCI awarded funding for 5 years (2000-2005) to support laboratory and clinical trials research. Recently, our progress and plans for the next 5 years were reviewed, and we again received an outstanding score. As a result, the NCI has awarded funding for another 5 years (2006-2010) (see NEWS section for details). The NANT consortium, for which most funding comes from this PPG, comprises a geographically dispersed group of institutions committed to working together on clinical trials of novel approaches to treating high-risk neuroblastoma.

Investigators at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and other NANT institutions perform laboratory research to discover potential new therapies for high-risk neuroblastoma. The NANT consortium conducts early clinical trials (phase I and II) that determine the potential for such novel approaches to improve the outcome of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. These therapies also may be important for other cancers of children and adults. Promising new therapies pioneered by the NANT consortium are proposed to the Children's Oncology Group for testing in large-scale trials that are necessary for proving the value of any new therapy in treating neuroblastoma.