Award Title: A comprehensive molecular and MR imaging characterization of ependymoma in infants
Funder: The Little Princess Trust

Abstract: Ependymoma is a type of brain tumour that occurs in all age groups. Current treatment includes neurosurgery, followed by radiotherapy (treatment with x-rays), but some scientists argue that chemotherapy (treatment with strong drugs) has a role to play in the treatment of young children with ependymoma. Ependymoma, especially in infants (children younger than three years), constitutes a challenge from many perspectives. Radiotherapy, a key component of postoperative management of ependymoma in children and young people, can have serious long-term side effects. These side effects range from mild learning disabilities to growth impairment and hormone problems. These adverse effects have driven efforts to defer or avoid the use of traditional radiotherapy. Despite all these efforts, infants with ependymoma have poorer outcomes than that of older children. And we want to try and find out why. There is a great need to study the molecular biology of these tumours to understand and identify factors that may contribute to this poor outcome. Attempts to understand the biology of infant ependymoma have been hampered by the lack of data. Thus, our knowledge of tumour biology and what distinguishes infants from other age groups remains very limited.
The goal of this project is to delineate the unique biological and imaging characteristics of infant ependymoma. We are gathering samples of ependymoma from infants, planning to perform various molecular experiments  and tests on these samples to try and find the different abnormalities. We hope that a better understanding of the biology of infant ependymoma will help to preselect patients who qualify for clinical trials or future combination therapies. It will also help improve the current poor prognosis of these infants with ependymoma.

Lay Abstract: Ependymoma is a type of brain tumour that occurs in all age groups. Current treatment includes neurosurgery, followed by radiotherapy (treatment with x-rays), but some scientists argue that chemotherapy (treatment with strong drugs) has a role to play in the treatment of young children with ependymoma. Ependymoma, especially in infants (children younger than three years), constitutes a challenge from many perspectives. Radiotherapy, a key component of postoperative management of ependymoma in children and young people, can have serious long-term side effects. These side effects range from mild learning disabilities to growth impairment and hormone problems. These adverse effects have driven efforts to defer or avoid the use of traditional radiotherapy. Despite all these efforts, infants with ependymoma have poorer outcomes than that of older children. And we want to try and find out why. There is a great need to study the molecular biology of these tumours to understand and identify factors that may contribute to this poor outcome. Attempts
to understand the biology of infant ependymoma have been hampered by the lack of data. Thus, our knowledge of tumour biology and what distinguishes infants from other age groups remains very limited.
The goal of this project is to delineate the unique biological and imaging characteristics of infant ependymoma. We are gathering samples of ependymoma from infants, planning to perform various molecular experiments and tests on these samples to try and find the different abnormalities. We hope that a better understanding of the biology of infant ependymoma will help to preselect patients who qualify for clinical trials or future combination therapies. It will also help improve the current poor prognosis of these infants with ependymoma.

Research Activity Codes: 2.1 BIOLOGICAL AND ENDOGENOUS FACTORS
Health Categories: CANCER AND NEOPLASMS