Projects we fund

Overview

Some cancers that affect children are still very hard to identify and treat, including the brain tumours high-grade glioma (HGG), diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and medulloblastoma (MB). As different types of tumour respond better to different treatments, the earlier we can identify them, the better we can plan the right treatment. Magnetic resonance imaging (often called an MRI scan) is essential. But although MRI is good at telling us about where and how big a tumour is, it often can’t tell us enough about it. Also, DIPG and HGG both grow in the brain, but it’s hard to see the details. We need to see how far a tumour has really spread in order to treat it properly. This project aims to develop and test advanced MRI techniques that will help.

What difference will this project make?

To work out the best plan of treatment for a child affected by a brain tumour, we need to know a lot about the cancer, including what type it is. But imaging techniques like MRI can only provide limited information, so we can’t plan individual treatment until after surgery. Yet with certain brain tumours an operation is both difficult and risky. So this project aims to help us find out more at an early stage – before surgery. With new techniques, we’ll be able to identify high-risk tumour subtypes earlier on. We could then see which children may need different treatment and more frequent monitoring. Just as importantly, children with lower-risk tumours might be able to have different therapies with lesser side-effects. Where an operation is needed, knowing more in advance could also guide surgeons to a tumour’s most malignant part. And having more information about where it has spread could help them remove all the tumour tissue without taking out any more healthy brain tissue than necessary, reducing the risk of relapse after surgery as well as the risk of neurological damage. These advanced imaging techniques, which can measure the size of a tumour and give information about its blood supply in a non-invasive way, will also help see how well a child is responding to treatment.