(MIT Technology Review) – In the past 30 years, childhood deaths from cancer have declined by 50 percent overall, but those from pediatric brain cancer have only decreased by 30 percent.
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital think precision medicine, the idea that treatments can be customized to individuals based on their genetics and other health information, could help improve those rates.
Investigators conducted genetic testing on 203 patient tumor samples and found that 56 percent of them harbored genetic abnormalities that could either help doctors diagnose or treat the brain tumor with drugs that are already available or those being studied in clinical trials.
The findings of their study, published in the journal Neuro-Oncology last week, also highlight key genetic differences in pediatric brain tumors compared to adult ones, suggesting that brain tumors in children and adults need to be treated differently.
Currently, such cancer genomic tests aren’t routine. They’re not covered by many health insurance plans or common outside research hospitals.
“The reason why we’re doing this for kids with brain tumors is that we’re not winning with standard treatments,” says co-lead study author Pratiti Bandopadhayay, a pediatric neuro-oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Pediatric brain tumors are the leading cause of childhood deaths from cancer. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy have been the standard treatments.