LONDON, May 24 (UPI) -- British and U.S. scientists say they've identified a new cancer gene that could lead to more effective treatments for pediatric glioma.
Researchers said their discovery was one of a number of significant genetic differences found between the adult and youth form of the disease. Gliomas are the most common form of brain tumor.
Clinicians and scientists at The U.K. Institute of Cancer Research, the University of Nottingham, the U.K. Children's Cancer and Leukemia Group and the St Jude Children's Research Hospital in the United States said they conducted the most comprehensive analysis to date of pediatric high-grade glioma, making a detailed scan of the genome of 78 newly-diagnosed patients, comparing pediatric tumor samples with the genome of adult gliomas.
"We found significant differences between the genomes of adult and young people's gliomas," said Dr. Chris Jones of the IRC. "This is an important finding because it means studies on adult gliomas cannot simply be applied to younger patients, and it has particular implications for drug trials."
The discovery is reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
