Dr Jones’ study found that children whose high grade gliomas had certain genetic changes were likely to have a poorer outlook than those whose tumours did not. Additionally, the researchers identified two new ‘fusion genes’, one of which appears to initiate the growth of tumours where it is present.
The findings give us more insight into each child’s tumour and could provide new approaches to treatment.
This latest research builds on the group’s earlier work which identified the pivotal role of a cancer-causing gene called MYCN in childhood glioblastomas and led to the development of a unique database of genetic information from over 400 paediatric brain tumours.
Read about the breakthrough in the Acta Neuropathologica journal.