University of Cambridge researcher given £1m to investigate brain tumours in children

Cambridge researchers have been given just over £1million by Cancer Research UK to investigate the deadliest brain tumours affecting children and young people.

Dr Manav Pathania and his team at the University of Cambridge will investigate paediatric high-grade gliomas, which account for fewer than 20 per cent of brain tumours in young age groups, but are responsible for the majority of deaths from childhood cancer in the UK.

The team have already shown how mutations in genes controlling normal childhood brain development cause this type of brain tumour, but the funding will help them explore the effects of these mutations on developing brain cells, with the aim of unlocking ways to stop tumours forming.

Dr Pathania, based at the Milner Therapeutics Institute, said: “Mutations in histones – a type of protein involved in packaging DNA inside cells – play an essential role in growth of these tumours.

“We think the histone mutations occur first in a small minority of brain stem cells, but they can’t cause cancer alone.

“Normally, stem cells go on to produce a variety of more specialised cells that are needed to build the brain, but like Peter Pan in Neverland, the histone mutations stop the cells from growing up.

“When brain stem cells don’t grow up properly they take on additional mutations. These mutations become the ‘partners in crime’ with the histone mutations, causing the stem cells to grow out of control and become cancer.

“However, we don’t know why specific ‘partner’ mutations occur in different types of stem cells, in different parts of the brain and in people of different ages, to cause cancer. This vital funding from Cancer Research UK will help us answer these crucial questions.

“Current treatments for these childhood brain tumours have life-altering side effects and can only slow down growth of the tumour. By unravelling the mysteries behind these rare tumours, we hope this work will lay the foundations for finding new treatments.”

Each year in the UK around 420 children are diagnosed with brain or central nervous system tumours.