Breast cancer drug found to help slow growth of rare childhood brain tumour
A team of researchers has found that a drug currently used to treat breast cancer could help slow the growth of the rare childhood brain tumour diffuse hemispheric glioma (DHG). Published in the journal Cancer Cell, the research from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute showed that ribociclib could be a potential new drug to target the disease.
DHGs are high-grade tumours that typically have a prognosis of 18 to 22 months. The researchers, partly funded by the Brain Tumour Charity and Cancer Research UK, focused on a type of DHG with a specific DNA mutation, known as H3G34-mutant.
They discovered that tumour cells disrupt the normal development of neurons and found that targeting the CDK6 protein, which is involved in regulating cell division, could make these cells vulnerable to treatments.
Novartis’ ribociclib, a CDK4/6 inhibitor currently sold under the brand name Kisqali, was then used to treat a child with a brain tumour when other treatments had failed.
The drug resulted in stable disease for a further 17 months before the tumour started to grow back, which the researchers have described as “remarkable” given that the disease usually progresses within 3.5 months following recurrence.
The child is currently undergoing further treatment, more than four years since their initial diagnosis.
Chris Jones, professor of childhood brain tumour biology at the ICR, said: “This work shows the importance of understanding how brain tumours develop in order to figure out better ways to treat these patients. It was a surprise to realise that this type of glioma seemed to arise from developing neurons, but we were able to use this knowledge to find specific vulnerabilities in these cancer cells, which hopefully we can now translate into clinical trials.”
The team has outlined that, while ribociclib is not a cure for the disease, the findings are significant and could pave the way for future drug combinations to be explored in clinical trials.
