IronMatt is proud to join the National Brain Tumor Society as an advocate nonprofit in support of the BRAIN Act legislation that is now working its way through Congress.
“IronMatt has been advocating for cutting-edge research for nearly 20 years. Joining our efforts with NBTS only feels right,” says CEO Matt Giegerich.
What Is the BRAIN Act?
The BRAIN Act, Bolstering Research and Advancing Innovation Now (H.R. 2767/S. 1330), aims to advance research to achieve medical breakthroughs in brain tumor treatment and improve awareness and adequacy of specialized cancer and brain tumor care.
At a high level, it will:
- Increase transparency of federally-funded biobank collections so that researchers are aware of others who possess samples that might be shared to enable important research.
- Sufficiently resource the National Cancer Institute’s Glioblastoma Therapeutics Network, so that it can realize its promise of vetting treatments and completing innovative early-phase clinical trials.
- Enable team science to advance brain tumor-related cellular immunotherapies engineered to attack
brain cancer cells. - Direct the Centers for Disease Control to conduct a public education campaign around the importance
of cancer clinical trials and biomarker testing in cancer treatment. - Augment and expand funding to develop innovative systems of care models for brain tumor survivors.
- Issue Food and Drug Administration guidance to identify ways to reduce exclusion of brain tumor
patients and patients with rare and recalcitrant cancers from clinical trials evaluating treatments for
other indications.
What Does It Mean to Be an Advocate?
Brain tumor advocates take ongoing action to ensure the country’s largest funder of brain tumor research, the federal government, has the funding it needs to support the promising research happening in labs across the U.S. They also work to ensure patients with a brain tumor have affordable access to life-saving treatments.
Advocacy is vital. Most treatments for pediatric cancer were approved 32 years ago, many before the mid 1980s. Breakthroughs are being made in labs across the country, yet just 4% of federal funding for cancer research supports this work.
Brain tumors are the 2nd most common cancers in children, after leukemia, with more than 4,000 brain and spinal cord tumors diagnosed each year in children and teens.
Join the fight against pediatric brain tumors. IronMatt is a 100% model charity, so every dollar goes to our dual mission: assisting families fighting a pediatric brain tumor and funding research to find better treatments and, hopefully, a cure.