A BMI1/CHD7 signature in medulloblastoma with poor prognosis.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Brain tumours account for a large proportion of childhood tumours. Medulloblastomas are the most common brain cancers seen in young children. They are malignant tumours formed from poorly developed cells at a very early stage of their life. They develop in a region at the back of the head called the posterior fossa in the region of the brain called the cerebellum, but may spread to other parts of the brain. Very rarely, medulloblastomas may spread to other parts of the body. The main treatments available to children with medulloblastomas today are surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. These treatments can be effective and kill the tumour cells in a proportion of patients; however they almost invariably also result in severe side effects which are particularly damaging in young children as the brain is still growing. These side effects mainly affect a child's physical and intellectual development with hearing and visual disturbances, growth and hormonal changes, reduced fertility, behavioural changes, learning problems, difficulties with coordination and secondary cancers. A report recently compiled by the New Philanthropy Capital, has identified brain tumours as one of the worst funded cancer, the cumulative research spend on brain tumours between 2002 and 2011 was less than 1% of all NCRI research spend. We have recently employed powerful new genetic approaches to identify specific molecular changes that characterize a particularly aggressive subtype of medulloblastomas for which no specific treatment exists. We have established cells from these tumours that can be grown in the laboratory and we have the ability to produce mice that develop the same types of tumours. We will use state-of-the-art methods to study the mechanisms responsible for the formation and growth of these tumours. These studies will lead to the identification of new genes and pathways that can be targeted to stop or reduce tumour formation and growth. We will target these genes and pathways to identify the ones that show most promise as therapeutic targets, which will represent the first important steps towards developing effective, new generation treatments for one of the most aggressive subtypes of this devastating disease.