Liquid biopsy in paediatric brain cancer
TEAM: Dr Joan Seoane, Director of Translational Research at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) (Barcelona), Dr García Ariza, from Cruces Hospital (Bilbao) and Dr Alvaro Lassaletta, from Niño Jesús Hospital (Madrid).
The project studies circulating DNA in cerebrospinal fluid in paediatric patients with medulloblastoma in suspected relapse. This analysis could help with:
- detecting a relapse early,
- differentiating relapses from false progression, and
- designing more appropriate treatments to improve life expectancy.
Analysing cerebrospinal fluid and tumour DNA in blood is a much less invasive and sequential way to study the tumour, as obtaining samples from tumour tissue in the brain is a complex task. It has been discovered that this analysis in paediatric patients with medulloblastoma allows to identify and monitor the tumour, in order to establish the molecular diagnosis, prognosis and, above all, treatment.
The aim of this new project is to monitor patients to detect possible relapses, which are the main cause of mortality due to the difficulty obtaining tumour tissue samples. As such, the objective is to study 25 paediatric patients in progression via analysis of circulating DNA in cerebrospinal fluid to establish a methodology that enables patient life expectancy to be improved.
Funded with thanks to:
