{"id":27202,"date":"2021-06-28T11:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.cancerresearchuk.org\/?p=23259"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:14:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:14:52","slug":"genetic-discovery-could-guide-treatment-for-aggressive-childhood-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/genetic-discovery-could-guide-treatment-for-aggressive-childhood-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetic discovery could guide treatment for aggressive childhood cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Researcher<\/div>\n

Specific genetic changes in tumours are linked to how aggressive a rare childhood cancer will be, in a finding scientists say could help pave the way for new, tailored treatments.<\/p>\n

The genetic changes identified in rhabdomyosarcoma<\/a> \u2013 a type of muscle cancer that mostly affects children \u2013 were also linked to the patients\u2019 age when the cancer developed and where it was found in the body. These factors affect how likely a child is to survive their disease.<\/p>\n

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This work is a fantastic example of how studying the underpinnings of children\u2019s cancers can improve treatment choices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2013 Sheona Scales, paediatric clinical trial lead at Cancer Research UK<\/span><\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Findings from this international study \u2013 the largest and most comprehensive of the disease to date \u2013 could lead to some children being offered more tailored, intensive treatment, while sparing others aggressive interventions.<\/p>\n

The study was led by The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), part-funded by Cancer Research UK, and is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren\u2019s cancers are different to adult cancers. At Cancer Research UK, we are continuing to invest in improving our understanding of children and young people\u2019s cancers to improve outcomes for our youngest cancer patients,\u201d said Sheona Scales, paediatric lead at Cancer Research UK.<\/p>\n

A breakthrough study<\/h2>\n

The international team analysed the DNA from 641 children and young people with rhabdomyosarcoma to look for changes that could be linked to how quickly the cancer grew and how likely it was to respond to treatment, amongst other things.<\/p>\n

Researchers looked at the two main sub-types of the disease \u2013 fusion-gene positive and fusion-gene negative \u2013 separately.<\/p>\n

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The two main sub-types of rhabdomyosarcoma are fusion-gene positive and fusion gene-negative, depending on whether a so-called \u2018fusion gene\u2019 is present. A fusion gene is formed from two previously separate genes, which can affect how the cell functions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When looking specifically at children with fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma, researchers found that tumours with faults in two specific genes \u2013 MYOD1 and TP53 \u2013 didn\u2019t respond as well to treatment. These faults were also linked to worse survival.<\/p>\n

Although the change in the TP53 gene was much rarer in children with fusion-positive rhabdomyosarcoma, it was still linked with worse survival. This has led researchers to classify this genetic fault as a \u2018high risk\u2019 indicator in both groups.<\/p>\n

Study leader Professor Janet Shipley, Professor of Molecular Pathology at the ICR, said: \u201cBy looking at the genetic features of different tumours, we can divide children into different risk groups to help guide their treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers are now planning to incorporate these new insights into the design of upcoming trials that aim to improve management of the disease.<\/p>\n

Learning from the past and looking to the future<\/h2>\n

As well as uncovering new information, this study has challenged previous findings, including that the presence of a fault in a gene called RAS is linked to poor outcomes.<\/p>\n

However, researchers did find that various RAS mutations appeared to be correlated with particular ages of onset for rhabdomyosarcoma. HRAS mutations arose in babies, KRAS mutations in toddlers and NRAS mutations in adolescence.<\/p>\n

Data shows that babies have worse survival rates than older children, possibly because doctors avoid using more aggressive treatments like radiation.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the findings of this study, researchers now believe that using targeted drugs such as tipifarnib, which blocks HRAS, may be particularly beneficial for young, high-risk patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren with aggressive and hard to treat cancer often undergo tough treatments that can cause long-term side-effects,\u201d said Scales. \u201cThis work will hopefully lead to better outcomes for children with those types of cancers, not just in survival but in the impact their cancer treatment has upon the rest of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on this topic<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Specific genetic changes in tumours are linked to how aggressive a rare childhood cancer will be, in a finding scientists say could help pave the way for new, tailored treatments. The genetic changes identified in rhabdomyosarcoma \u2013 a type of muscle cancer that mostly affects children \u2013 were also linked to the patients\u2019 age when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43735,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27202\/revisions\/43735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}