OTHR-28. SUCCESS AND IMPACT IN 5 YEARS OF POST-MORTEM BRAIN TUMOR TISSUE PROGRAM: GIFT FROM A CHILD

The Gift From A Child post-mortem brain tumor tissue donation program was developed with patient families, care teams, and researchers to ensure patients can choose to donate brain tumor tissue regardless of logistics and circumstances. In the past 5 years, the program has developed a network of 7 Research Centers of Excellence (RCOE) that work with over 75 referring institutions, non-profit foundations, patient communities, and consortiums. Since the institution of this program, there has been an increase in the total number of donations. External donations also continue to grow as awareness builds, independent of new RCOEs joining the network. Program success is demonstrated by the increasing percentage of external donations and the number of new referral institutions each year. There has also been an overall increase in both total and percentage of donations from external referral sources, with an increasing majority of donations being external. From 2019 to 2023, the total number of external donations has jumped from 45 to 89 per year, reflecting an increase from 42% to 65% of the total donations. The referrals for external donations come from the treating neuro-oncology and general care teams, self-referrals from patient families directly, and from the patient family community on behalf of current patients. Resources are accessible via a 1-800 number, the GFAC website, and calls directly to RCOE or the GFAC team. Overcoming institutional and other logistical barriers ensures that all patients have access to GFAC. Patients who would otherwise be unable to donate are now represented in research that informs future treatments, leading to pre-clinical research that better represents the actual patient population. All data from donations via GFAC is shared with CBTN to ensure open access. This has led to an increase in successful projects and cell lines developed from the donated tissue.