At the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning in Toronto, Dr. Peter Dirks and his team of researchers have discovered a way to stop tumour growth before it starts for a common form of pediatric brain cancer known as medulloblastoma.
“What we found was that the cell that was lurking and behind was a cell that actually multiplied slowly, so we found a way of preventing that cell from generating any more other cells in the tumour,” said Dr. Dirks who is the Chief, Division of Neurosurgery, for The Hospital for Sick Children.
Dirks says after conventional treatments, a protein called OLIG2 would activate ‘sleeping’ stem cells, causing them to divide and grow into a tumour — but now these findings would stop that.
“We kind of found a magic bullet, if you will, that targets a very precise event in the tumour that then causes the thing to collapse,” said Dirks.
Dr. Kinjal Desai is a senior research associate at SickKids who has been working alongside Dr. Dirks on the research for nearly 10 years. She says the findings could have the potential to help patients of all ages one day.
“The principle of it is to sort of disrupt cancerous processes at the very route of tumour growth, so that is what is so exciting about sort of the implications of this, so it may extend beyond medulloblastoma and other types of cancers as they get studied as well,” said Desai.
In 2019, Kate Edwards-Wilbrink’s son Eddy was diagnosed with a brain tumour at just one year old.
Dirks treated Eddy, who would go through several rounds of chemotherapy along with a life-saving surgery, eventually getting the all-clear. His mother, Kate, says the new research will be life-changing for her son and her family.
“I was so proud that my kid’s doctor discovered this for us.. He will always be at risk for it returning, and this specific research can prevent that,” said Edwards-Wilbrink.
As for what is next with this research, Dr. Dirks says his team plans to move on to the clinical research stage within the next six months with potential partnerships with the United States and Australia.
