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Flinn Foundation

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Aug 31, 2010
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TGen finds therapeutic targets for rare cancer in children

Tags: cancer, tgen

[Source: TGen] - The first study of Ewing’s sarcoma that screened hundreds of genes based on how they affect cell growth has identified two potential anti-cancer drug targets, according to a scientific paper by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) published this month in the journal Molecular Cancer.

Ewing’s sarcomas are rare, but aggressive cancer lesions that occur most frequently in the bones of teenagers. They represent nearly 3 percent of all childhood cancers. Patients are treated with a combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. This cancer can reoccur after surgical removal, and often spreads to the lungs, other bones and bone marrow. Once it spreads, or metastasizes, only 1 in 5 patients survive more than 5 years.

These lesions harbor unique chromosomal abnormalities that give rise to fusion genes that act as cancer-inducing proteins, or oncoproteins.

For more information: TGen finds therapeutic targets for rare cancer in children