Sponsors (71)
Official title: To advance research to achieve medical breakthroughs in brain tumor treatment and improve awareness and adequacy of specialized cancer and brain tumor care.
Introduced April 9, 2025 by Brian K. Fitzpatrick · Last progress April 9, 2025
The bill directs focused federal resources, infrastructure, and outreach to accelerate brain tumor research, clinical-trial access, and survivorship care — trading higher federal spending and implementation risks (safety, privacy, administrative burdens, and potential diversion from other research priorities) for faster development of new treatments and better coordination of care.
People with brain tumors (adult and pediatric) will see expanded, dedicated federal research funding and programs (including multi‑institutional CAR‑T and glioblastoma efforts) that accelerate development of new therapies and clinical trials.
Patients (including rural and racial/ethnic minority populations) will gain better awareness of and access to clinical trials and biomarker testing through targeted outreach, education, and clearer eligibility guidance, improving trial enrollment opportunities.
Researchers, scientists, and health systems will get improved research infrastructure — searchable NIH biospecimen catalogs, stable preclinical/IND funding, and shared tools for coordination — enabling faster translation of discoveries into trials.
Taxpayers will face increased federal spending from multiple authorizations (notably the multi‑institutional research funds, outreach grants, and survivorship pilots), raising budgetary commitments without offsets.
Patients enrolled in expanded trials — especially those testing novel cellular therapies — face substantial clinical risks (serious adverse events), and broader inclusion policies could complicate interpretation of trial results.
Concentrating funding and attention on glioblastoma and certain cellular immunotherapies may divert NIH resources and investigator effort away from other cancers or basic research, reducing support for other priorities.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Requires NIH biospecimen reporting, creates NCI glioblastoma and cellular immunotherapy programs, funds outreach and survivorship pilots, and directs FDA trial‑eligibility guidance.
Establishes new federal actions to accelerate research, development, and clinical care for brain tumors. Requires public reporting of NIH-funded brain tumor biospecimen collections, funds new NCI programs to advance glioblastoma therapeutics and brain tumor cellular immunotherapies, supports outreach to increase trial and biomarker awareness, and creates pilot grants for survivorship care; the FDA must issue guidance to reduce exclusion of brain tumor patients from clinical trials for other indications. Creates named programs with multi-year funding authorizations for research networks, demonstration grants, and survivor-care pilots, sets deadlines for reporting and agency guidance, and authorizes oversight and penalties for noncompliance with biospecimen reporting requirements.