Investigating Biomarker for Treatment Respondors and Non-respondors in PDX Model Experiment

Children with high-grade glioma, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, rhabdoid brain tumors, and certain other types of brain tumors experience a low likelihood of survival even with the maximum available therapy. The standard therapies for pediatric brain tumors, including surgery, intensive chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are often toxic for patients, therefore there is a strong need to identify, develop, and test new therapies. Preclinical models are a common way for researchers to study tumor types as well as test diagnostics and therapies. An avenue for the development of new therapies is the identification of biomarkers, indicators or targets in the body that can help predict patient response to certain treatments. Researchers will use data available through the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas to search for such biomarkers. This information can then be used in the development of combination therapies tested on animal models, allowing more accurate predictions of a patient’s reaction to treatment, reducing toxicities.