In a breakthrough study, scientists at the University of Nottingham have identified three important genes involved in the development of a type of childhood brain cancer.

Scientists from the Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre at The University of Nottingham have found three genes associated with specific characteristics of ependymoma, which is the third most common form of childhood brain cancer.

Till now, not much was known about the biology behind this disease, but the results of this study have given an insight into the genetics behind ependymoma, which could help scientists develop targeted drugs to treat the disease more successfully, and with fewer side effects.

In total, three fourth of children with cancer in the UK can be successfully treated, but survival for ependymoma is just 50 per cent. Almost half the children who are initially successfully treated will suffer a relapse of the disease.

"Understanding the biological causes of cancer is vitally important as it will help us to develop drugs that target abnormal genes in cancer cells but not in healthy cells, which is what traditional chemotherapy treatments do. More accurately targeted treatments will cause fewer side-effects than conventional chemotherapy and be more effective. So this is an important finding which we hope will lead to the development of new treatments for ependymoma," said lead author Professor Richard Grundy from the Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre at The University of Nottingham.