Funded by The Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Lead investigator: Dr Stuart Smith, University of Nottingham
Award: £95,696.31
Awarded August 2019
Brain tumours cause more cancer deaths in children and young adults than any other cancer, and current treatment options can have significant side-effects. So new treatment approaches for these types of cancer are vital.
Brain tumours are cancers of electrically active cells, and recent work suggests cancer relies on electrical charges to grow and invade. Some clinical trials are underway in adults with brain tumours testing the effect of a device that generates an electric field being fitted to the scalp, to treat brain tumours and stop cancer cells from growing. But bulky equipment and the requirement for daily head shaving make it hard for children to use. Dr Smith’s team are exploring whether a slightly different approach to ‘electrotherapy treatment’ could be taken with children.
Their project will look at the levels of electrical activity in some the most common childhood brain tumours, such as high grade gliomas (HGG) including Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG), and ependymoma. Currently there are no drugs that work well for these tumours and survival rates are poor. The project will investigate whether abnormal electric signals in tumours are linked to poor survival, and the role of ‘electric channels’ in cancer cells. There are some drugs which target electric function in cells for other conditions, for example to treat fits and high blood pressure. This study will investigate whether any of these drugs might be suitable to also treat brain tumours, potentially providing enormously needed new drug therapy options for brain tumours.