Funded by the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund
Some brain tumours in children grow very quickly and are hard to treat. As a result, many children affected by these tumours have poor outcomes. Scientists know that changes in the DNA of tumour cells help them grow, but they are still learning how these tumour cells interact with the body’s immune system. Tumour cells are surrounded by immune cells, which can sometimes help the body fight the cancer, but in other cases, they may help the tumour grow. Researchers have worked for years to help the immune system find and kill cancer cells. While this approach has worked well for some types of cancer, it has not been effective in treating paediatric brain tumours. By studying the tumour and immune cells together, we hope to identify which types of immune cells are present, what they do, and how they interact with brain and tumour cells. Our study aims to learn how immune cells act around these tumours and how we might be able to change their behaviour to help fight the cancer. We will test whether blocking specific cell communications can help slow down tumour growth and train the immune system to recognise and attack the cancer. What we learn here could lead to new treatments that help children with these serious brain tumours live longer and healthier lives.
