DIPG Around the World: Spain and DIPG

For me, the DIPG community started to come together in Barcelona, Spain in February 2009.  Eleven pioneering,international researchers came together in Barcelona, Spain to try to figure out new ways to fight this devastating pediatric cancer.   It is also a time when advocacy foundations started to work together specifically on DIPG.  The Alicia Pueyo Foundation funded this conference and the Musella Foundation in conjunction with Just One More Day made videos available of the presentations.  These videos are still available today (click here).

Many of the names that were at that first conference are mentioned frequently in the DIPG community- Hargrave (UK), Kieran (Boston), Caretti(at that time Netherlands but now in Michelle Monje's lab), Van Vuurden (Netherlands),  Gururangan (Duke) and Broniscer (St. Jude).  

I'm not sure why the other names are not as well known.  It certainly has been a significant and unfortunate oversight that the Spanish researchers and doctors who initiated the cascade of events that we have seen unfold over the last four years are not as well recognized as these other names.   Today I hope to rectify some of that.

So those names back in 2009:
OFELIA CRUZ (Barcelona)  -Diffuse brainstem glioma: a clinical introduction
SEBASTIA PONS (Barcelona)- Brainstem embryology/ brain precursor cells
JOAN SEOANE (Barcelona) - Molecular gliomagenesis: genes and pathways
MANUEL RAMIREZ (Madrid)- Gene therapy strategies
In addition, Dr Jaume Mora moderated a two hour session discussing proposals for a common international/interdisciplinary research agenda!

Spain didn't just get the ball rolling on DIPG, but they have also continued to push forward in various aspects of DIPG research and treatment.   Perhaps the most visible accomplishment was the 2012 Barcelona conference.  Again the European DIPG participants made the presentations available.  In this meeting Spain had five different presentations-
*Biopsy and Autopsy (Mora)
*Intra-arterial Chemotherapy (Sola)
*Oncolytic Adenovirus for DIPG (Alonso)
*Intra-tumoral delivery of Oncolytic Adenovirus (Carcaboso)
*Irinotecan/Cisplatin Clinical Trial (Cruz)

The Irinotecan/Cisplatin trial started spring 2012.   Because of a keyword issue, it might be hard to find as it is listed under brain stem tumor, brainstem glioma and intrinsic brain stem tumor (but not DIPG or pontine glioma).

Clearly Spain has been a major factor in the advancement of DIPG Research.   Thank you for making this happen.

Much of the DIPG work in Spain has been funded by the Alicia Pueyo Foundation.   You can site a listing of their projects on their site.