Using a computer algorithm, scientists at IGP have identified a promising new treatment for neuroblastoma. This form of cancer in children, which occurs in specialised nerve cells in the sympathetic nervous system, may be life-threatening. In the long term the discovery, described in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature Communications, may result in a new form of treatment for children in whom the disease is severe or at an advanced stage.

Medication against a certain type of epilepsy can be a new way to treat malignant brain tumours in infants. A specific mTOR inhibitor can cross the blood-brain barrier and both reach and attack the tumour where it is located. This is shown by IGP researchers, in collaboration with American and British colleagues, and the results are published in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell.

Researchers at IGP have identified a certain group of patients with malignant glioblastoma brain tumours that respond to a therapy targeting the cancer gene MYCN. The research findings are published in the scientific journal Cell Death & Disease.

In an international collaboration, researchers from IGP have shown that loss of chromosome Y in the blood in men can function as an indicator of genetic instability, which in turn can affect the susceptibility for cancer in other parts of the body. The study has been published in the journal Nature.

A new study from IGP shows that whole genome sequencing contributes to increasing the accuracy in genetic studies, which in turn can improve the understanding of how biomarkers can be used to discover diseases. The results are published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.