Post by UCL

A team of UCL clinician-scientists have identified a brain network linked to diffuse midline glioma (DMG), one of the deadliest childhood brain cancers, in a breakthrough that could help improve prognosis and guide future treatment strategies. A study was led by Dr Jai Sidpra and Dr Valentina Lind, medical students enrolled on the MBPhD Programme within the UCL Division of Medicine and senior author, Professor Darren Hargrave’s group at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Working with collaborators from the UK, Europe, and the United States, their findings provide the first evidence in humans that a conserved and clinically important human brain network underlies the progression of DMG, a devastating childhood brain cancer for which average survival remains approximately 12 months after diagnosis. Published in Nature, the study found that a tumour's position within a specific brain network is associated with patient outcomes, offering new insight into why this devastating disease behaves differently from child to child. Read more: https://bit.ly/3S8109e UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research)