Worldwide, retinoblastoma is found in more than 5,000 children each year, including about 300 in the U.S. Most are age 5 or younger, and some are infants when the cancer is discovered, making them among the youngest cancer patients.
While 95 percent of patients are cured with current therapies if their tumors are discovered before they spread beyond the eye, Dyer said the prognosis is much worse for children in developing countries whose cancer is often advanced when it is discovered. For up to half of those patients, retinoblastoma remains a death sentence. Researchers are working to develop curative treatments that preserve vision without radiation or surgical removal of the eye. Success is particularly important for children with tumors in both eyes.
For this study, researchers sequenced the complete normal and cancer genomes of four St. Jude patients with retinoblastoma. The human genome is the complete set of instructions needed to assemble and sustain an individual.
The effort, a first for retinoblastoma, was part of the PCGP that St. Jude and Washington University officials launched in 2010. The three-year project aims to complete whole-genome sequencing of normal and tumor DNA from 600 children and adolescents battling some of the most challenging cancers. Organizers believe the results will provide the foundation for the next generation of clinical care.
The retinoblastoma tumors sequenced contained about 15-fold fewer mutations than have been found in nearly all other cancers sequenced so far. In one patient's tumor, RB1 was the only mutation.
The findings prompted Dyer to integrate the whole-genome sequencing results with additional tests that looked at differences in the patterns of gene activity in tumor and normal tissue. In particular, researchers focused on genes that, when mutated, promote cancer development. "To our surprise and excitement, what we found was that instead
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| Contact: Summer Freeman summer.freeman@stjude.org 901-595-3061 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Source:Eurekalert |