“Medulloblastoma exists in a pre-malignant form at birth after initially developing during the first or second trimester of pregnancy. As medulloblastomas typically present during childhood, around seven years of age, the team’s discovery suggests that there could be a window of several years during which a medulloblastoma could be prevented from ever occurring.”
Michael Taylor, Vijay Ramaswamy, and Robert J. Wechsler-Reya, of the Cure Group 4 Consortium team, are among the researchers responsible for this amazing finding.
“We wanted to see how we could speed up the development of more effective therapies, but what we discovered may be even better than what we imagined. Preventing cancer from happening in the first place instead of treating it after it happens is the best possible outcome for children. This paper makes great strides for children with medulloblastoma and could only have been possible through a remarkable international collaboration that involved 46 different hospitals across 17 countries,” says Dr. Michael Taylor.
Support for this study was provided by The Medulloblastoma Initiative through its founder, Fernando Goldsztein.
Read a synopsis, a commentary, or the article published in Nature.
