News
New research into genetics of childhood brain tumours
31 January 2012
New studies have found genes linked to two types of aggressive childhood brain tumours, and could aid the development of effective treatments.
Reported in Nature and Nature Genetics, the studies used 'next-generation' DNA sequencing technology to uncover genetic faults behind two childhood tumours that are often hard to treat - glioblastoma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).
Adult and childhood glioblastoma are thought to be caused by largely different genetic alterations, but the causes of childhood cases are less well understood.
In order to understand more about the causes, Dr Jabado, from McGill University in Montreal, and co-workers studied 48 childhood glioblastoma samples and found that 44 per cent of the tumours had faults in genes that are involved in regulating the genetic material in chromosomes.
More work now needs to be done to turn this key biological insight into new, effective therapies for children with glioblastoma.
Back to news