Gliomatosis cerebri

In the last decade, the amount of knowledge on paediatric brain tumours has increased significantly. However, some rare entities –like GC- are still waiting for new discoveries and innovative therapies. We have learned that GC shares some of the same molecular alterations as other invasive gliomas. However, GC cases must have something else that makes these tumours so invasive and migratory, and resistant to therapy. The scientific community wants to raise awareness about this disease to promote research funding. Research is important for finding patterns and looking for common mutations in patients.^12,13

Family foundations are now working together to support physicians and researchers who are committed to learning more about gliomatosis cerebri and to finding effective treatments. International gliomatosis cerebri conferences have been held every two years since 2015^14,15 and research continues.

¹² Wu, G. et al. The genomic landscape of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma and pediatric non-brainstem high-grade glioma. Nat. Genet. 46, 444–450 (2014).

¹³ Huang, Y. et al. A proangiogenic signaling axis in myeloid cells promotes malignant progression of glioma. J. Clin. Invest. 127, 1826–1838 (2017).

¹⁴ Greenfield, J. P., Castañeda Heredia, A., George, E., Kieran, M. W. & Morales La Madrid, A. Gliomatosis cerebri: A consensus summary report from the First International Gliomatosis cerebri Group Meeting, March 26–27, 2015, Paris, France. Pediatr. Blood Cancer 63, 2072–2077 (2016).

¹⁵ Morales La Madrid, A., Ranjan, S. & Warren, K. E. Gliomatosis cerebri: a consensus summary report from the Second International Gliomatosis cerebri Group Meeting, June 22–23, 2017, Bethesda, USA. J. Neurooncol. 140, 0 (2018).