Brain Tumor Awareness Month

Over the last 40 years, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has made massive strides in researching and treating pediatric brain tumors.

• 1985: St. Jude established its new brain tumor program and began accepting its first patients. St. Jude also launched a pilot study providing evidence that treating patients with chemotherapy post-surgery helped to delay irradiation in pediatric brain tumor patients. This course of treatment lowered the side effects children were experiencing as it allowed their brains more time to develop before exposure.
• 1990: St. Jude researchers successfully employed a new pediatric brain tumor treatment using radioactive implants.
• 1995: St. Jude is among the first to use a computer-based, three-dimensional radiation therapy approach in treating juvenile brain tumors.
• 1999: St. Jude researchers discovered a genetic defect that can predispose pediatric leukemia patients to develop secondary brain tumors. Research began on developing prevention strategies.
• 2004: St. Jude conducted a study that concluded conformal radiation kills tumors in children with the brain tumor ependymoma while sparing normal tissues. Researchers also discovered that doctors could potentially determine which children with medulloblastomas would require alternative therapies by identifying the presence of the ERBB2 protein in tumor samples.
• 2006: Average- and high-risk patients saw an 85% and 70% increase in survival rates, respectively, as a result of improved treatment methods.
• 2007: St. Jude researchers proved a drug commonly used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) also helps improve cognitive and social skills in children treated for brain tumors. That same year, scientists discovered a promising new treatment strategy for eliminating brain tumors and preventing regrowth by disturbing the microscopic “niches” that stem from blood vessels in the brain.
• 2011: St. Jude researchers identified new pharmaceutical therapies specifically for the brain tumor ependymoma by screening over 5,000 compounds for activity against the tumor type.
• 2014: The St. Jude Pediatric Cancer Genome Project reported two milestones: Offering new leads that improved outcomes for children with high-grade glioma brain tumors, particularly the youngest patients, and identifying the most common genetic alteration to date in the brain tumor ependymoma.
• 2016: St. Jude scientists launched an international study that indicated the cells most likely to be the origin of the pediatric brain tumor, Group 4 medulloblastoma. This is a key step for developing targeted therapies.
• 2018: St. Jude marked three major milestones in the field of brain tumor research. Our researchers:
  • Identified six genes that predispose carriers to develop a type of brain tumor called medulloblastoma, leading to the first genetic screening guidelines for patients with this tumor.
  • Created a high-resolution genomic map, which provides a more comprehensive view of brain development. This is achieved by looking at the changes in gene activity that occur in individual cells in the cerebellum during embryonic development and immediately after birth.
  • Mapped cellular machinery responsible for managing gene activation, or expression, in a deadly brain cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).