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Roger J. Packer, MD, Senior VP at Children's, Named to Key Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Research Panel

Washington, DC -- Roger J. Packer, MD, Senior Vice President, Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine at Children’s National Health System, has been named to a three-year term to the new Research Advisory Network of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, reflecting his role as a leading researcher nationally into neurological disorders of children.

As the largest and most significant foundation in the U.S. dedicated to advancing research for children with brain tumors, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation is “undertaking a review of its strategic goals and evaluating its funding priorities, and created the Research Advisory Network as part of that,” Packer says. “I am honored to serve on that committee.” Dr. Packer also is Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. 

The appointment acknowledges Children’s National’s “leadership and stature of its (neurological) program,” Packer says.

The PBTF’s new 17-member Research Advisory Network (RAN) is designed to evaluate the impact of its research investment on the lives of children diagnosed with brain tumors. It has invested more than $24 million in cutting-edge medical research to advance its goals to increase survival and quality of life for children with brain tumors.

As head of Children’s National’s Brain Tumor Institute and the Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute,  Dr. Packer has conducted leading research into neurological disorders of children, the impact treatment has on neurological and cognitive outcomes – including those children treated for cancer –  and ways to avoid or reduce treatment-related neurologic sequelae. Packer has led multiple studies on a national and international level for a variety of childhood brain tumors.

The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation is “focusing on all types of pediatric brain tumors, looking at ways to maximize the quality of life for survivors of childhood brain tumors,” Dr. Packer says.

The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation is “deeply honored by Dr. Packer’s participating in PBTF’s RAN,” says Joanne Salcido, PhD, VP Research and Family Support for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. “He is a highly esteemed clinician, research investigator, and thought leader in the field who tirelessly goes to bat for children with brain tumors,” said Dr. Salcido. “He will no doubt play a key role in helping the PBTF take its research funding endeavors to the next level for our stars,” a reference to children with brain tumors.

Packer joins other RAN panel members who include medical directors, representatives of a research institution, a brain tumor nonprofit and the pharmaceutical industry. The members’ terms can be renewed. “We look to RAN members’ very informed perspectives to help us set timely funding priorities as we navigate our way through the changing research landscape,” Dr. Salcido says. 

Dr. Packer is principal investigator at Children’s National for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC), formed under the auspices of the National Cancer Institute; Chairman of the PBTC Low-Grade Glioma Committee; Group Chair of the Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Consortium; Chair of the Medulloblastoma Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group; and Principal Investigator (PI) for the Institution as part of the NINDS-sponsored Neuro-NEXT Clinical Trials Consortium; and PI of its NSADA award.  

Contact: Joe Cantlupe at 202-476-4500.

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