Decoding a Childhood Cancer

摘要

The identification of recurrent genetic changes in human tumors can provide important mechanistic insights into how tumors arise and, ideally, prompt new ideas for effective therapies. To date, this "cancer genomics" strategy has been applied only to adult cancers. Parsons et al. (p. 435, published online 16 December) now catalog the genetic alterations present in medulloblastoma, a brain tumor that mainly affects children. Interestingly, there were 5 to 10 times fewer genetic alterations in these tumors compared with solid tumors that typically affect adults.