A novel laboratory model for neuroblastoma research

Neuroblastoma is a cancer that mostly affects babies and younger children. It develops from immature nerve cells (neuroblasts) found in several areas of the body, with the most common symptom being a lump found around the abdomen area.  It is the most common childhood tumour occurring outside the brain, affecting approximately 100 children per year in UK. Progress from research means that 80% of children diagnosed with neuroblastoma now survive this cancer. However, for those patients where the cancer comes back (relapses) survival is much lower, and so further research is critically needed to develop new treatment options. Dr Tsakiridis’ project will support this quest by developing a novel way of growing the cancerous cells in a laboratory to enable scientists to test and learn more about which treatments could help to cure children with neuroblastoma. 

Neuroblastoma is thought to develop whilst a child is growing in the womb (in utero) when a group of normal embryonic cells called ‘trunk neural crest (NC)’ become cancerous due to changes in their DNA. Genetic changes which lead to very high levels of a gene known as ‘MYCN’ is key in causing this cancer. Much more scientific research is needed to examine this process, but the current methods available to scientists are limited. Dr Trakiridis’ project will develop a much needed new laboratory method that enables the production of human trunk NC cells in the petri dish and then converts them into cancerous cells by artificially raising their MYCN levels. Dr Tsakiridis’ team will test whether and how these cells become neuroblastoma using various approaches e.g. by examining how much they grow in the petri dish compared to trunk NC cells which have normal MYCN levels. This innovative strategy will support the quest for a better understanding of the causes of neuroblastoma and ways to stop the growth of neuroblastoma cells.