Overview
Dr. Fangusaro's primary area of research is the development of early phase clinical trials, novel therapeutics and relevant biologic correlates in an effort to improve survival outcomes and minimize toxicities. Within pediatric brain tumors, his research has focused on two main areas: low grade gliomas (LGG) and central nervous system (CNS) germ cell tumors (GCTs). He has and currently leads large prospective multi-institutional trials specifically focused on these 2 tumor types.
He is a member of both the LGG and CNS GCTs international consensus panels, and also serves as the principal investigator and co-investigator on numerous national trials. As part of his role as the Director of Developmental Therapeutics in Oncology, he oversees the team that coordinate early phase trials in all pediatric oncology patients, including solid tumors and leukemia and lymphoma.
Vajapeyam S, Brown D, Billups C, Patay Z, Vezina G, Shiroishi MS, Law M, Baxter P, Onar-Thomas A, Fangusaro JR, Dunkel IJ, Poussaint TY. Advanced ADC Histogram, Perfusion, and Permeability Metrics Show an Association with Survival and Pseudoprogression in Newly Diagnosed Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma: A Report from the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2020 Apr 2. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A6499. [Epub ahead of print]
Abdelbaki MS, Abu-Arja MH, Davidson TB, Fangusaro JR, Stanek JR, Dunkel IJ, Dhall G, Gardner SL, Finlay JL. Pineoblastoma in children less than six years of age: The Head Start I, II, and III experience. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2020 Mar 18:e28252. doi: 10.1002/pbc.28252. [Epub ahead of print]
RJ, Iavarone A, Jones DTW, Blakeley JO, Bouffet E, Fisher MJ, Hwang E, Hawkins C, Kilburn L, MacDonald T, Pfister SM, Rood B, Rodriguez FJ, Tabori U, Ramaswamy V, Zhu Y, Fangusaro J, Johnston SA, Gutmann DH. Implications of New Understandings of Gliomas in Children and Adults with NF1: Report of a Consensus Conference. Neuro Oncol. 2020 Feb 14. pii: noaa036. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/noaa036. [Epub ahead of print]
Li BK, Vasiljevic A, Dufour C, Yao F, Ho BLB, Lu M, Hwang EI, Gururangan S, Hansford JR, Fouladi M, Nobusawa S, Laquerriere A, Delisle MB, Fangusaro J, Forest F, Toledano H, Solano-Paez P, Leary S, Birks D, Hoffman LM, Szathmari A, Faure-Conter C, Fan X, Catchpoole D, Zhou L, Schultz KAP, Ichimura K, Gauchotte G, Jabado N, Jones C, Loussouarn D, Mokhtari K, Rousseau A, Ziegler DS, Tanaka S, Pomeroy SL, Gajjar A, Ramaswamy V, Hawkins C, Grundy RG, Hill DA, Bouffet E, Huang A, Jouvet A. Pineoblastoma segregates into molecular sub-groups with distinct clinico-pathologic features: a Rare Brain Tumor Consortium registry study. Acta Neuropathol. 2020 Feb;139(2):223-241. doi: 10.1007/s00401-019-02111-y. Epub 2019 Dec 9.
Fangusaro J, Wu S, MacDonald S, Murphy E, Shaw D, Bartels U, Khatua S, Souweidane M, Lu HM, Morris D, Panigrahy A, Onar-Thomas A, Fouladi M, Gajjar A, Dhall G. Phase II Trial of Response-Based Radiation Therapy for Patients With Localized CNS Nongerminomatous Germ Cell Tumors: A Children's Oncology Group Study. J Clin Oncol. 2019 Dec 1;37(34):3283-3290. doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.00701. Epub 2019 Sep 23.
Sin-Chan P, Mumal I, Suwal T, Ho B, Fan X, Singh I, Du Y, Lu M, Patel N, Torchia J, Popovski D, Fouladi M, Guilhamon P, Hansford JR, Leary S, Hoffman LM, Mulcahy Levy JM, Lassaletta A, Solano-Paez P, Rivas E, Reddy A, Gillespie GY, Gupta N, Van Meter TE, Nakamura H, Wong TT, Ra YS, Kim SK, Massimi L, Grundy RG, Fangusaro J, Johnston D, Chan J, Lafay-Cousin L, Hwang EI, Wang Y, Catchpoole D, Michaud J, Ellezam B, Ramanujachar R, Lindsay H, Taylor MD, Hawkins CE, Bouffet E, Jabado N, Singh SK, Kleinman CL, Barsyte-Lovejoy D, Li XN, Dirks PB, Lin CY, Mack SC, Rich JN, Huang A. A C19MC-LIN28A-MYCN Oncogenic Circuit Driven by Hijacked Super-enhancers Is a Distinct Therapeutic Vulnerability in ETMRs: A Lethal Brain Tumor. Cancer Cell. 2019 Jul 8;36(1):51-67.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2019.06.002.
Fangusaro J, Onar-Thomas A, Young Poussaint T, Wu S, Ligon AH, Lindeman N, Banerjee A, Packer RJ, Kilburn LB, Goldman S, Pollack IF, Qaddoumi I, Jakacki RI, Fisher PG, Dhall G, Baxter P, Kreissman SG, Stewart CF, Jones DTW, Pfister SM, Vezina G, Stern JS, Panigrahy A, Patay Z, Tamrazi B, Jones JY, Haque SS, Enterline DS, Cha S, Fisher MJ, Doyle LA, Smith M, Dunkel IJ, Fouladi M. Lancet Oncol. Selumetinib in paediatric patients with BRAF-aberrant or neurofibromatosis type 1-associated recurrent, refractory, or progressive low-grade glioma: a multicentre, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncology 2019 Jul;20(7):1011-1022. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30277-3. Epub 2019 May 28.
JP, Powell S, Zelko F, Hartsell W, Goldman S, Fangusaro J, Lulla RR, Smiley NP, Chang JH, Gondi V. Improved neuropsychological outcomes following proton therapy relative to X-ray therapy for pediatric brain tumor patients. Neuro Oncol. 2019 Jul 11;21(7):934-943. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/noz070.
Dobson THW, Tao RH, Swaminathan J, Maegawa S, Shaik S, Bravo-Alegria J, Sharma A, Kennis B, Yang Y, Callegari K, Haltom AR, Taylor P, Kogiso M, Qi L, Khatua S, Goldman S, Lulla RR, Fangusaro J, MacDonald TJ, Li XN, Hawkins C, Rajaram V, Gopalakrishnan V. Transcriptional repressor REST drives lineage stage-specific chromatin compaction at Ptch1 and increases AKT activation in a mouse model of medulloblastoma. Sci Signal. 2019 Jan 22;12(565). pii: eaan8680. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.aan8680.
de Blank P, Bandopadhayay P, Haas-Kogan D, Fouladi M, Fangusaro J. Management of pediatric low-grade glioma. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2019 Feb;31(1):21-27. doi: 10.1097/MOP.0000000000000717. Review.
Gupta N, Goumnerova LC, Manley P, Chi SN, Neuberg D, Puligandla M, Fangusaro J, Goldman S, Tomita T, Alden T, DiPatri A, Rubin JB, Gauvain K, Limbrick D, Leonard J, Geyer JR, Leary S, Browd S, Wang Z, Sood S, Bendel A, Nagib M, Gardner S, Karajannis MA, Harter D, Ayyanar K, Gump W, Bowers DC, Weprin B, MacDonald TJ, Aguilera D, Brahma B, Robison NJ, Kiehna E, Krieger M, Sandler E, Aldana P, Khatib Z, Ragheb J, Bhatia S, Mueller S, Banerjee A, Bredlau AL, Gururangan S, Fuchs H, Cohen KJ, Jallo G, Dorris K, Handler M, Comito M, Dias M, Nazemi K, Baird L, Murray J, Lindeman N, Hornick JL, Malkin H, Sinai C, Greenspan L, Wright KD, Prados M, Bandopadhayay P, Ligon KL, Kieran MW. Prospective feasibility and safety assessment of surgical biopsy for patients with newly diagnosed diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma .Neuro Oncol. 2018 Oct 9;20(11):1547-1555. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/noy070.
Shaik S, Kennis B, Maegawa S, Schadler K, Yanwen Y, Callegari K, Lulla RR, Goldman S, Nazarian J, Rajaram V, Fangusaro J, Gopalakrishnan V. REST upregulates gremlin to modulate diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma vasculature. Oncotarget. 2017 Dec 28;9(4):5233-5250. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.23750. eCollection 2018 Jan 12.
Jones DTW, Kieran MW, Bouffet E, Alexandrescu S, Bandopadhayay P, Bornhorst M, Ellison D, Fangusaro J, Fisher MJ, Foreman N, Fouladi M, Hargrave D, Hawkins C, Jabado N, Massimino M, Mueller S, Perilongo G, Schouten van Meeteren AYN, Tabori U, Warren K, Waanders AJ, Walker D, Weiss W, Witt O, Wright K, Zhu Y, Bowers DC, Pfister SM, Packer RJ. Pediatric low-grade gliomas: next biologically driven steps. Neuro Oncol. 2018 Jan 22;20(2):160-173. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/nox141. Review. Erratum in: Neuro Oncol. 2018 Jan 22;20(2):293.
Burrowes D, Fangusaro JR, Nelson PC, Zhang B, Wadhwani NR, Rozenfeld MN, Deng J. Erratum to: Extended diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging with two-compartment and anomalous diffusion models for differentiation of low-grade and high-grade brain tumors in pediatric patients. Neuroradiology. 2017 Nov;59(11):1181. doi: 10.1007/s00234-017-1918-8. No abstract available.
Marinoff AE, Ma C, Guo D, Snuderl M, Wright KD, Manley PE, Al-Sayegh H, Sinai CE, Ullrich NJ, Marcus K, Haas-Kogan D, Goumnerova L, London WB, Kieran MW, Chi SN, Fangusaro J, Bandopadhayay P. Rethinking childhood ependymoma: a retrospective, multi-center analysis reveals poor long-term overall survival. J Neurooncol. 2017 Oct;135(1):201-211. doi: 10.1007/s11060-017-2568-8. Epub 2017 Jul 21.
Burrowes D, Fangusaro JR, Nelson PC, Zhang B, Wadhwani NR, Rozenfeld MJ, Deng J. Extended diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging with two-compartment and anomalous diffusion models for differentiation of low-grade and high-grade brain tumors in pediatric patients. Neuroradiology. 2017 Aug;59(8):803-811. doi: 10.1007/s00234-017-1865-4. Epub 2017 Jul 8. Erratum in: Neuroradiology. 2017 Sep 6.
Banerjee A, Jakacki RI, Onar-Thomas A, Wu S, Nicolaides T, Young Poussaint T, Fangusaro J, Phillips J, Perry A, Turner D, Prados M, Packer RJ, Qaddoumi I, Gururangan S, Pollack IF, Goldman S, Doyle LA, Stewart CF, Boyett JM, Kun LE, Fouladi M. A phase I trial of the MEK inhibitor selumetinib (AZD6244) in pediatric patients with recurrent or refractory low-grade glioma: a Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC) study. Neuro Oncol. 2017 Aug 1;19(8):1135-1144. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/now282.
Federally Funded
Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC) – 2016-Present
In my role, I partner with the Chair and the Operations Director to oversee all regulatory aspects of PBTC. We oversee and review every concept proposal and protocol. I personally organize the bi-annual meeting and am intimately involved in the approval of all trials, industry and National Cancer Institute collaboration and overseeing the consortium’s daily activities.
Role: Vice-chair
COG-ACNS1831 – 2019-Present
Role: PI
Private Foundation Funding
CURE Childhood Cancer – 2019-Present
Investigating MMR deficiency and immune landscape to establish effective immunotherapy for pediatric high-grade glioma.
Peach Bowl LegACy Fund – 2019-Present
I led the initial development of the entire program, including, committee and program infrastructure development, and coordination of the application submission and evaluation process. On a daily basis, I continue to oversee the program’s logistical and financial operations.
Role: Program Leader