Interviews With Leading Researchers & Clinicians

Read interviews with today's leading researchers and clinicians about their exciting work and how their discoveries are impacting patient lives.

Get Weekly Updates on New Articles

Analysis of NTRK Alterations in Pan-Cancer Adult and Pediatric Malignancies: Implications for NTRK-Targeted Therapeutics

We now understand that cancer is a disease rooted in genomic breakdown. But when analyzing a patient’s genome, not all mutations contribute equally to disease. Further complicating things is the fact that, even after a gene’s role in cancer development is clearly established, only certain alterations can be targeted by current therapies. Therapeutically targetable mutations, therefore, are needles in the haystack for cancer researchers – which explains the recent excitement around the NTRK gene family...

Dr. Ryosuke Okamura January 22^nd, 2020

Somatic and germline genomics in paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

The interplay between hereditary and somatic mutations in cancer development has been a difficult relationship for oncologists to unravel. While we now know that some cancers are indeed heritable, we don’t always know to what degree. Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one such disease, with a well-documented but still ambiguous hereditary component. A new study out of St. Jude’s Research Hospital – Somatic and germline genomics in paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) - expanded on the complex genetics of the disease. ..

Dr. Ching-Hon Pui December 17^th, 2019

The Expanding Network of NTRK Fusions in CIFS: Beyond NTRK3-ETV6

Infantile fibroblastic and myofibroblastic tumors are the second most prevalent type of soft tissue neoplasms in pediatric patients < 1 years old. Although the majority of these tumors are either benign or low-grade, there are certain subtypes with a higher tendency toward malignancy. Congenital infantile fibrosarcoma (CIFS) is one such high-risk group. CIFS patients, who are nearly always less 2 years old, present with morphologically ambiguous tumors that can resemble a range of other infantile neoplasms of varying clinical course, including myofibroma/myofibromatosis, lipofibromatosis and fibrous hamartoma of infancy, primitive myxoid mesenchymal tumor of infancy (PMMTI), and dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP)...

Dr. Jessica Davis December 05^th, 2019

Alterations in ALK / ROS1 / NTRK / MET Drive a Group of Infantile Hemispheric Gliomas

Gliomas are rare brain tumors that can affect individuals of all ages. While studies are plentiful on pediatric and adult gliomas, infant cases are historically understudied – an unfortunate fact, considering central nervous system tumors are most common (and deadly) in this age group. This research team sought to account for that lack of data by cytogenetically analyzing infant glioma samples collected between 1986 and 2017. The team was able to divide these tumors into three genetic subtypes that were tightly tied to clinical outcome. Additionally, they found that many of the tumors harbored just a single genetic aberration, evidence that infant gliomas are usually single driver tumors...

Dr. Cynthia Hawkins December 03^rd, 2019