The Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation is proud to announce year 2001 funding of a promising research study entitled, “Gene Expression Analysis of Medulloblastoma” submitted by Dr. Tobey MacDonald of Children’s National Medical Center. The initial results of this study have been published in the October issues of the leading scientific journals, Nature Genetics. In addition, this promising new research has recently received some media attention from local as well as national televisions news stations.
Dr. MacDonald hypothesized that since the histologic features (microscopic appearance) of medulloblastoma have thus far failed to provide an accurate predication of the clinical biological behavior of medulloblastoma in children, examining the specific genetic events that have a role in the biological behavior of medulloblastoma may provide a clearer understanding of this tumor. Using a new genetic approach, Dr. MacDonald was able to identify a set of genes that appear to control the spread of medulloblastoma that may also serve as new therapeutic targets of this disease. The purpose of his future project is to expand the gene expression analysis in medulloblastoma in order to further characterize and identify additional novel therapeutic targets. This will be achieved my molecular analysis utilizing expanded oligonucleotiede arrays (Affymetrix “gene chips”) that can screen approximately 10,000 human genes simultaneously. He also plans to obtain preliminary data regarding the outcome of molecular subytypes of medulloblastoma by using the time to disease progression and overall event-free survival as endpoint measurement in cohorts of identically treated patients.
We thank all of our supporters who have helped make it possible for us to fund this study, previous studies and other projects that are of great importance to the pediatric brain tumor community.
Tobey MacDonald, M.D.
2001 Grant Summary written for The Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation by Tobey MacDonald, M.D., Children’s National Medical Center.
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