How do childhood brain tumours start?

A striking feature of many early childhood brain and spinal cord tumours is the presence of non-brain “mesodermal” cell types alongside the neural (brain) cells. These ‘mixed neuromesodermal’ (NM) tumours are often aggressive, are associated with poor prognosis and require radical surgery combined with radio- and chemotherapy. They are also difficult to diagnose using conventional detection methods, which rely on the identification of neural markers and therefore they may be more common than previously thought.

An attractive strategy for investigating the causes of NM tumours involves the isolation and culture of the cancer stem cells which drive their formation, and are thus ideal targets for drug development. Currently, brain cancer cell lines (sources of brain cancer cells used in laboratory studies) are not suitable for studying these cells. This study aims to establish new sources of brain cancer cells for laboratory studies which would enable the investigation of these types of tumours. The results of this pilot study will serve as the basis for a larger follow-up study aiming to give insight into the cellular causes of NM brain tumours and open new avenues for their effective treatment.