Brain cancer is the second-leading cause of death in children in the developed world. For the children who survive, standard treatments have long-term impacts on their development and quality of life, particularly in small children and infants.
Research out of Emory University and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Queensland, Australia, has shown that a potential new targeted therapy for childhood brain cancer is effective in infiltrating and killing tumor cells in preclinical models tested in mice.
In the paper published in Nature Communications, the novel drug CT-179 was shown to target a specific subset of tumor cells responsible for recurrence and therapy resistance in pediatric brain cancer. The findings could lead to more effective, less toxic treatments, improving survival and…