The PedBrain Tumor Research Project is the first German contribution to the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and focuses on the two most common pediatric brain tumors, the medulloblastoma and the pilocytic astrocytoma. Since leukemia can be treated quite well in most cases today brain tumors in children constitute now the highest mortality rate.
In this research project we analyze the entire tumor genome of a patient and compare this to the normal genome of the same patient to decipher the molecular causes for these types of cancer. For statistical reasons we aim to sequence tumor/normal pairs of 600 patients. With the results of the study we expect to provide the basis to
- develop new therapies
- stratify patients for risk adopted treatments
- provide markers that predict the response to the applied therapy
Project Organization
The PedBrain Tumor Research Project started in early 2010 and will take about five years. The diagram below shows the general project structure with the steering committee and the different work packages. Click on the image for enlargement.
