Introducing immunotherapy into the BEACON trial for high-risk neuroblastoma
| Study name | BEACON Immuno amendment |
| Study type | Phase II trial |
| Principal investigator(s) | Dr Lucas Moreno and Dr Juliet Gray |
| Institutions | Trial taking place at 40 sites across Europe, operated under the Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer (ITCC) collaborative research group. CRCTU in Birmingham managing progress of trial. |
| Partners | Imagine For Margo |
| Total awarded | £500,000 |
| Solving Kids’ Cancer UK contribution | £150,000 |
Overview
Treating relapsed and refractory neuroblastoma remains a huge challenge with children’s outcomes much poorer than for those with newly diagnosed disease. The BEACON trial opened in 2013 to investigate better options for these patients, evaluating two key questions:
- Which of the currently available chemotherapy regimens is most effective?
- Does the addition of a new ‘tumour-starving’ drug, Bevacizumab, alongside chemotherapy improve outcomes?
In 2018 we funded an amendment to the BEACON trial which is aiming to find out the effectiveness of combining chemotherapy with Dinutuximab Beta immunotherapy for patients with relapsed or refractory disease.
Impact
If the addition of anti-GD2 therapy alongside chemotherapy shows promising results for relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma then this could be introduced as an option for children in this situation. There are currently no ‘standard’ treatment pathways for this type of disease so this would be significant progress for this group who currently have few options.
