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Over 90% of US children with cancer are treated at Children's Oncology Group (COG) centers, which seek to maximize enrollment in therapeutic and biobanking studies. Rare cancers have demonstrated lower than expected COG enrollment. We evaluated trends in COG rare cancer enrollment compared to US incidence from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries, examining the impact of COG therapeutic trials and Project:EveryChild, a cancer biobank/registry.
Platinum-based chemotherapy in combination with anti-PD-L1 antibodies has shown promising results in mesothelioma. However, the immunological mechanisms underlying its efficacy are not well understood and there are no predictive biomarkers to guide treatment decisions.
Nick Gottardo MBChB FRACP PhD Head of Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology and Haematology, Perth Children’s Hospital; Co-head, Brain Tumour Research
Glioblastoma, a lethal high-grade glioma, has not seen improvements in clinical outcomes in nearly 30 years. Ion channels are increasingly associated with tumorigenesis, and there are hundreds of brain-penetrant drugs that inhibit ion channels, representing an untapped therapeutic resource. The aim of this exploratory drug study was to screen an ion channel drug library against patient-derived glioblastoma cells to identify new treatments for brain cancer.
Standard-risk WNT medulloblastoma patients have an excellent prognosis using the combination of standard dose craniospinal radiotherapy (CSI) followed by platinum and alkylator based chemotherapy. A recent pilot study that attempted to completely omit radiotherapy was terminated early as all patients relapsed rapidly. The study highlights that therapy is the most important prognostic factor, with CSI still required to cure even the most favorable subgroup of medulloblastoma patients.
The large diversity of central nervous system (CNS) tumor types in children and adolescents results in disparate patient outcomes and renders accurate diagnosis challenging. In this study, we prospectively integrated DNA methylation profiling and targeted gene panel sequencing with blinded neuropathological reference diagnostics for a population-based cohort of more than 1,200 newly diagnosed pediatric patients with CNS tumors, to assess their utility in routine neuropathology.
Cancer continues to be a leading cause of death globally. However, there remains a significant disparity in the reported incidence of cancer in developed countries, estimated to be 295.3 cases per 100,000 people, compared with only 115.7 in developing countries. Some of the reasons for this variation include lack of robust data collection with limited reporting systems, and insufficient data availability in the registries of these developing nations.
Glioblastoma, a rare, and highly lethal form of brain cancer, poses significant challenges in terms of therapeutic resistance, and poor survival rates for both adult and paediatric patients alike. Despite advancements in brain cancer research driven by a technological revolution, translating our understanding of glioblastoma pathogenesis into improved clinical outcomes remains a critical unmet need.
Molecular profiling of the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME) has enabled the rational choice of immunotherapies in some adult cancers. In contrast, the TIME of paediatric cancers is relatively unexplored. We speculated that a more refined appreciation of the TIME in childhood cancers, rather than a reliance on commonly used biomarkers such as tumour mutation burden (TMB), neoantigen load and PD-L1 expression, is an essential prerequisite for improved immunotherapies in childhood solid cancers.
Clinical management of breast cancer (BC) metastasis remains an unmet need as it accounts for 90% of BC-associated mortality. Although the luminal subtype, which represents >70% of BC cases, is generally associated with a favorable outcome, it is susceptible to metastatic relapse as late as 15 years after treatment discontinuation.