B.C. cancer research specialists are part of a team that will receive nearly $10 million to develop tests to better identify and treat brain cancer in children.
The $9.8 million in funding, announced Monday afternoon, comes primarily from Genome BC and Genome Canada.
It will allow researchers at Vancouver’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre as well as clinicians from the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto to develop tests that will help physicians determine specific types of brain cancer in children.
Of the four kinds of brain cancer that can affect children, not all are treatable. Physicians currently have to subject all cancer patients to radiation or chemotherapy, which only works for certain strains of brain cancer, meaning the children who cannot be cured are needlessly subjected to painful treatments during their last days.
Recent refinements in genomics research have allowed researchers to identify specific types of brain cancer in children, and they will now develop processes for testing.
“We are very pleased that the DNA sequencing technologies have evolved to the point they can be deployed as part of this important clinical work,” said Marco Marra, project co-leader and director of the Genome Sciences Centre.
“We have to start somewhere in finding new genetic targets for the development of new, less toxic and more precise drugs, and this project has the potential to hit home runs for children with brain tumors in future years,” said David Malkin, a pediatric oncologist at Sick Kids Hospital. “We will also learn important lessons that can be applied to other types of cancer.”
Nelson Bennett
@nbennett_biv