Investigating medulloblastoma to inform strategies to sensitise tumours to existing therapies

Until recently, population-based techniques have dominated biomedical research, masking the meaningful heterogeneity present within a tumour, by ‘averaging out’ the detail. We now know that this heterogeneity underpins resistance to treatment and that genetically identical cells have been shown to display different fates in response to the same drug, due to stochastic variation in relevant signaling pathways.

Tumours of the brain and nervous system, such as medulloblastoma (MB), are a leading cause of cancer-related death in infants and children. The 5-year survival rate is 70%, although for patients with the most aggressive diagnosis, Group 3 (G3), this drops to 50%. Also, the problem of debilitating late effects impacts on the quality of life of childhood cancer survivors. Over 60% of survivors develop chronic health conditions such as peripheral neuropathy, which impacts on motor/sensory processes as a result of vincristine treatment

Grant Award – Studentship 2017-2018

Funding Award – £2000

Funding Awarded to – Dr Caroline Topham

Research Location – University of Salford

Lead Researcher – Dr Caroline Topham

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