The researchers, led by Professor Richard Grundy from the university's Children's Brain Tumor Research Center, said the three genes are associated with specific characteristics of ependymoma -- the third most common form of childhood brain cancer.

"Understanding the biological causes of cancer is vitally important as it will help us to develop drugs that target abnormal genes in cancer cells but not in healthy cells, which is what traditional chemotherapy treatments do," said Grundy. "So this is an important finding which we hope will lead to the development of new treatments for ependymoma."

The team analyzed the genome wide expression pattern of ependymoma and found a gene called SI00A4 was strongly associated with tumors in very young children. SI00A6 was a marker of a tumor in a specific part of the brain and high levels of CHI3L1 was common in cancers showing a larger degree of cell death.

All three genes are located on chromosome 1 that the scientists linked to poor survival for ependymoma.

The research appears in the British Journal of Cancer.