Newly identified compounds may help prevent lethal pediatric cancer
April 9, 2019
New research from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in San Diego, has found compounds that may be helpful in treating a deadly form of brain cancer, Choroid Plexus Carcinoma (CPC). This disease is a rare cancer of the brain typically found in children. Signs of this cancer often include, vomiting, headaches and nausea.
In order to treat this disease, surgery is often the first step followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Those who survive this treatment may experience long lasting consequences and developmental complications. Many children, however, are too young to receive this treatment with only 40% surviving just five years after diagnosis.
The researchers at Sanford Burnham performed tests on a newly developed mouse model, with activated Myc, a gene known to cause cancer, and removal of p53, a gene associated with tumor suppression. After testing 8,000 compounds against these cancerous growths, they found three which not only stopped tumor progression, but caused no harm to neighboring cells.
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