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BRAF genomic alterations are the most common oncogenic drivers in pediatric low-grade glioma.

The Toronto Paediatric Cancer Stage Guidelines are a compendium of staging systems developed to facilitate collection of consistent and comparable data on stage at diagnosis for childhood cancers by cancer registries.

Standard-risk WNT medulloblastoma patients have an excellent prognosis using the combination of standard dose craniospinal radiotherapy (CSI) followed by platinum and alkylator based chemotherapy. A recent pilot study that attempted to completely omit radiotherapy was terminated early as all patients relapsed rapidly. The study highlights that therapy is the most important prognostic factor, with CSI still required to cure even the most favorable subgroup of medulloblastoma patients. 

The induction of DNA damage has been employed as an anticancer strategy for more than 100years, first starting with the use of radiation to treat stomach cancer followed by the first uses of DNA-damaging chemotherapy to treat childhood leukemia.

The goal of a clinical quality registry is to deliver immediate gains in survival and quality of life by delivering timely feedback to practitioners, thereby ensuring every patient receives the best existing treatment. We are developing an Australian Brain Cancer Registry (ABCR) to identify, describe, and measure the impact of the variation and gaps in brain cancer care from the time of diagnosis to the end of life.

Over 90% of US children with cancer are treated at Children's Oncology Group (COG) centers, which seek to maximize enrollment in therapeutic and biobanking studies. Rare cancers have demonstrated lower than expected COG enrollment. We evaluated trends in COG rare cancer enrollment compared to US incidence from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries, examining the impact of COG therapeutic trials and Project:EveryChild, a cancer biobank/registry.

Platinum-based chemotherapy in combination with anti-PD-L1 antibodies has shown promising results in mesothelioma. However, the immunological mechanisms underlying its efficacy are not well understood and there are no predictive biomarkers to guide treatment decisions.

High-grade glioma (HGG) cells reactivate neurodevelopmental programs regulated by ion channels to drive tumor progression. The activity of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) is fundamental to development, a target of blood-brain barrier (BBB)-permeable FDA-approved drugs, and aids tumor advancement in several cancers. However, the contribution of VGSC activity to HGG pathology remains unknown.

Childhood cancer survivors (CCS) are at risk of long-term skeletal muscle deficits following intensive therapies during critical periods of growth. This review aimed to synthesize approaches for assessing muscle quantity, quality, and function in CCS and to quantify deficits relative to healthy peers. 

Glioblastoma, a lethal high-grade glioma, has not seen improvements in clinical outcomes in nearly 30 years. Ion channels are increasingly associated with tumorigenesis, and there are hundreds of brain-penetrant drugs that inhibit ion channels, representing an untapped therapeutic resource. The aim of this exploratory drug study was to screen an ion channel drug library against patient-derived glioblastoma cells to identify new treatments for brain cancer.