Welcome

The Brain Tumor Funders' Collaborative (BTFC) is a partnership among eight private philanthropic and advocacy organizations designed to bridge the "translational gap" that prevents promising laboratory science from yielding new medical treatments. On June 30, 2005, we announced a new, joint funding initiative: we will provide up to three $2 million multi-year grants to fund collaborative, innovative and novel approaches to brain tumor research.

The identification of successful treatments for brain cancer remains elusive, despite the dedicated and heroic efforts of researchers, clinicians, patients and families. For most patients, the tumors are lethal. The reasons for this record of failure in the development of new therapies are well recognized by the research community. The aggressive nature of human gliomas, the logistical difficulties in delivering drugs and biomolecules across the blood-brain barrier to the malignant cells, the functional uniqueness of the human brain, and the lack of ecologically valid experimental models all contribute to the lack of progress against these devastating tumors.

During the past two years, a group of private funders supporting brain cancer research convened a series of workshops with researchers and clinicians. We challenged each other to identify missing pieces: what new forms of research and new structures within the research community are needed to produce effective therapies for brain tumors? We emerged with a broad outline of this new funding initiative, hoping to provoke creativity and novel approaches. Collaboration among investigators is a key ingredient, to span the gap between basic science and clinical application, and among the various disciplines and institutions which currently operate independently. We are prepared to support the design and growth of collaborative teams dedicated to development of effective brain cancer treatments. And we began by forming our own collaborative funding partnership: the Brain Tumor Funders’ Collaborative.

Each participating member of BTFC also maintains its own grantmaking program and, in some cases, patient information and advocacy program. These are accessible through our individual websites.