Funded by The Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Lead investigator: Dr Ruman Rahman, The University of Nottingham
Award: £24,806.00
Funded November 2016
Brain tumours are the second most common tumour in children with a low survival rate. Although paediatric high grade glioma (pHGG) accounts for 8-12% of central nervous system tumours, this results in a significant clinical challenge with only 19.2% of children surviving 5 years after diagnosis.
Paediatric and adult high grade glioma (aHGG) have very different molecular biology and genetics, suggesting that the way paediatric high grade gliomas form is very different to those in adults. It is therefore important that the next generation of treatments be based on paediatric data, rather than repurposing drugs approved for adults.
The growth of cancer cells is dependent on the building blocks of cells being available, and while some of these are made by the cancer cells themselves, some are taken from external sources in the body. This study will look and metabolic changes inside and outside of pHGG cells when grown under laboratory conditions in the absence of some of these building blocks. The aim of the study is to identify metabolic ‘biomarkers’ in pHGG that may be suitable for targeting with next-generation therapies.