London, United Kingdom (AHN) – New research shows how the most common type of children’s brain cancer can arise from stem cells. The new research shows that medulloblastomas can grow from a type of brain stem cell and that these cancers are a distinct form of the disease, which may require a completely different approach to treatment.
Medulloblastomas account for one in five of all children’s brain tumors. They are most common in children between the ages of three and eight but they can also affect young adults.
Silvia Marino, Professor of Neuropathology at Queen Mary, University of London, led the study says, “This type of brain tumor can pose a great challenge to doctors. In some children, treatment works well but in others the cancer is aggressive and far harder to treat.”
The study’s data provides valuable information and shows for the first time that some of these tumors develop from endogenous stem cells.
According to researchers, this is important because it could help us to tell which cancers will respond well to treatment and which will need a more aggressive therapy. Additionally the data provides new insight into finding much-needed new drugs for the disease.
The study is published in the latest edition of Oncogene.
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