New gene test offers personalised cancer care options for children

A new test has been created that assesses genetic information in children with cancer to help them receive more personalised and tailored treatment.

Designed by the Institute of Cancer Research in London and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the test works by sequencing 81 different cancer genes to detect the presence of cancer-causing mutations, allowing treatment to be tailored accordingly.

A pilot study has now set to be launched that will see around 400 children with solid tumours at 21 hospitals across the country receive the test, in order to assess its reliability and usefulness. It begins this year and will last two years.

This represents phase one of a wider programme aiming to provide testing for all children with solid tumours in the UK, allowing them to be directed into clinical trials targeting particular mutations within their tumours.

Study leader Louis Chesler, professor of paediatric cancer biology at the Institute of Cancer Research, said: "My hope is that through this and other initiatives like it, we can help to drive forward the use of targeted drugs in children, and make the case very clearly that they should be more widely available."