Cancer: Predicting the outcome of childhood cancers
Nature Communications
January 28, 2015
In children with cancer, genetic differences among tumour cells that make up an individual tumour may predict treatment outcome, reports a study published online this week in Nature Communications.
Research on adult cancers has revealed that genetic mutations differ among the cells within single primary tumours and between primary tumours and their metastases. How this diversity effects treatment response and progression has previously remained unclear and it was also uncertain whether this level of diversity was present in tumours from infants and children.
David Gisselsson and colleagues observed microdiversity (genetic diversity among cells in millimeter-sized tumor samples) in the tumours of seven children who had received chemotherapy. This indicates that childhood tumours are not genetically stable, as was previously believed.
The authors also showed that the presence of microdiversity could predict treatment outcome in children with a common type of kidney cancer, nephroblastoma. In a study of 44 children with this type of cancer, those without tumor microdiversity survived 100 percent of the time.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms7125
Research highlights
-
Aug 5
Microbiology: Single switch makes Escherichia coli beneficial insect partnerNature Microbiology
-
Aug 5
Conservation: More than half of unassessable species may be at risk of extinctionCommunications Biology
-
Aug 4
Physiology: Restoring cellular functions in pigs after deathNature
-
Aug 3
Zoology: Mother’s iron helps Weddell seal pups diveNature Communications
-
Aug 2
Health: Certain medications may impact risk of heat-related heart attacksNature Cardiovascular Research
-
Jul 28
Archaeology: Ancient humans were consuming milk long before they could digest itNature