Tumors arising in the brain are the most common solid cancers in children. They are the major cause of childhood cancer deaths. Indeed, more children die from brain tumors than any other disease. Despite improvement in cure rates towards the end of the 20th century, survival statistics have remained unchanged over the past two decades and remain at a level well below that of other childhood cancers, such as leukemia. Also, survivors have a high risk of significant permanent adverse side effects that require a lifetime of clinical management, significantly impacting health systems and quality of life for patients. The lack of advancements in childhood brain tumor treatment was due to deficiencies in knowledge about the underlying biological causes. However, pediatric neuro-oncology has undergone an exciting and dramatic transformation during the past 10 years, driven by advances in genomic technology and international collaboration. Armed with this new knowledge, there is a tremendous opportunity to personalize the treatment by developing novel therapeutic approaches that are tailored to each molecular subtype of these devastating brain cancers to improve the cure rate while minimizing toxicities.
The majority of childhood brain tumors are still treated using 3 main therapeutic modalities; surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. However, there now exists a huge number of new cancer drugs that more precisely target the molecular abnormalities in cancer cells that drive tumor growth or immunotherapies. However to date, very few of these drugs have improved clinical outcomes. There are two major reasons for this. Firstly, there has been a failure to fully evaluate these new drugs in model systems that accurately reflect the disease prior to clinical trial. Secondly, not adequately assessing drugs for their ability to penetrate through the brain’s natural protective barrier, the Blood-Brain Barrier [BBB]. This means that the drugs fail to reach their target, the tumor.
We have now reached a major tipping point in choosing the right drugs to treat our patients. The challenge now is that we have far more new drugs to assess through clinical trials than the number of patients available. We believe the answer to this conundrum is to increase the rigor of preclinical testing to identify only the most effective drugs and prioritize only those drugs with the best chance of success for clinical translation.
In this Research Topic, we welcome:
- Original Research, especially pre-clinical research
- Reviews including current state reviews for the different childhood brain tumors (Medulloblastoma, Ependymoma, High-grade glioma, Embryonal tumors)
- New therapies (brain penetrant, immunotherapies, targeted therapies)
Please note: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.
Tumors arising in the brain are the most common solid cancers in children. They are the major cause of childhood cancer deaths. Indeed, more children die from brain tumors than any other disease. Despite improvement in cure rates towards the end of the 20th century, survival statistics have remained unchanged over the past two decades and remain at a level well below that of other childhood cancers, such as leukemia. Also, survivors have a high risk of significant permanent adverse side effects that require a lifetime of clinical management, significantly impacting health systems and quality of life for patients. The lack of advancements in childhood brain tumor treatment was due to deficiencies in knowledge about the underlying biological causes. However, pediatric neuro-oncology has undergone an exciting and dramatic transformation during the past 10 years, driven by advances in genomic technology and international collaboration. Armed with this new knowledge, there is a tremendous opportunity to personalize the treatment by developing novel therapeutic approaches that are tailored to each molecular subtype of these devastating brain cancers to improve the cure rate while minimizing toxicities.
The majority of childhood brain tumors are still treated using 3 main therapeutic modalities; surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. However, there now exists a huge number of new cancer drugs that more precisely target the molecular abnormalities in cancer cells that drive tumor growth or immunotherapies. However to date, very few of these drugs have improved clinical outcomes. There are two major reasons for this. Firstly, there has been a failure to fully evaluate these new drugs in model systems that accurately reflect the disease prior to clinical trial. Secondly, not adequately assessing drugs for their ability to penetrate through the brain’s natural protective barrier, the Blood-Brain Barrier [BBB]. This means that the drugs fail to reach their target, the tumor.
We have now reached a major tipping point in choosing the right drugs to treat our patients. The challenge now is that we have far more new drugs to assess through clinical trials than the number of patients available. We believe the answer to this conundrum is to increase the rigor of preclinical testing to identify only the most effective drugs and prioritize only those drugs with the best chance of success for clinical translation.
In this Research Topic, we welcome:
- Original Research, especially pre-clinical research
- Reviews including current state reviews for the different childhood brain tumors (Medulloblastoma, Ependymoma, High-grade glioma, Embryonal tumors)
- New therapies (brain penetrant, immunotherapies, targeted therapies)
Please note: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.
