Australians living with the most common and deadliest form of brain cancer will be given new hope thanks to a patient-focused clinical trial for Australians with Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM).

The government’s Australian Brain Cancer Mission, in partnership with the Minderoo Foundation and the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation (CBCF), has opened a grant opportunity for researchers to undertake the GBM Adaptive Global Innovative Learning Environment (GBM AGILE) trial for the first time in this country.

Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, said the new grant round would help Australia’s world-leading researchers to continue to strive for the Mission’s goal to defeat brain cancer.

GBM AGILE is a flexible and adaptable trial approach that has several “treatment arms”, giving it the potential to fundamentally change the clinical research process for GBM by identifying or disproving therapies more quickly.

“Using a technique called adaptive randomisation, the trial connects patients with therapies that have the greatest chance of treating their cancer. That means if one treatment is working better than another, more new patients will be given that treatment”, said CBCF CEO, Lance Kawaguchi.