Genes Linked to Aggressive Childhood Brain Tumours Found
28 September 2009 - Scientists have found strong evidence that two genetic abnormalities are linked to children developing the most common type of brain tumour.
Dr Chris Jones from the ICR led a team of scientists from the UK, France, Portugal, Brazil and the US to examine EGFT gene alterations in 90 samples from children with high-grade - fast growing - gliomas.
They found about 10 per cent of the children were carrying too many copies of the EGFR gene, and many also had a deletion mutation - the first time this has been found in children.
These two mutations were already known to occur in many adult glioblastoma patients, leading to drugs targeting the EGFR gene being used in clinical trials to treat adult glioblastomas.
In laboratory tests to investigate whether these drugs could also help children, they treated glioma cells carrying the EGFR deletion mutation with a drug called erlotinib (Tarceva). But the drug did not kill the cancer cells, and in further tests the scientists identified a platelet-derived growth factor receptor that prevented the drug from being effective.
The team next used erlotinib in combination with another drug called imatinib (Glivec), which aimed to block the other molecule. They found significant death of cancer cells when the two drugs were used together.
“Our study provided strong laboratory evidence that these two drugs could be used in combination to treat some childhood gliomas,” Dr Jones says.
