Pediatric neuro-oncologist Stefan Pfister, M.D., at the Hopp Children´s Cancer Center at the NCT Heidelberg (KiTZ), is investigating the molecular profiles of childhood brain tumors like ependymoma in hopes of developing novel treatments for patients.

“An important step to improve treatment is to understand the different biological subgroups that drive the disease,” says Dr. Pfister. His research with the support of the CERN Foundation and its investigators has identified a total of nine subgroups of ependymoma, all of which in the end might need different treatment.

Researching the cell of origin

Dr. Pfister's investigations have started with trying to understand the cell of origin of the disease so he can create a preclinical model of the disease in his lab.

“We think that really defining the cell type specific to the ependymoma subgroup it derives from will guide our decision for therapeutic targets,” says Dr. Pfister.  “We want to be able to mark the tumor cell of origin in order to sort these cells and generate faithful models for preclinical drug testing.”

The effort mimics research in leukemia, in which researchers were able to identify and mark the cell of origin and then make it vulnerable. This could potentially also be exploited for future immunotherapy approaches.

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