Research summary
Brain cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death and disability in children. Treatment is particularly challenging in younger children and infants, since 70 to 80 per cent have rare and highly fatal cancers that we don’t fully understand how to treat. As well, potential cures using current chemotherapy- and radiation-based treatments leave almost all young survivors with lifelong intellectual and physical disabilities.
Dr. Annie Huang, Canada Research Chair in Rare Childhood Brain Cancers, is an international leader in studies of rare and infant brain cancers. She has established a global clinical registry and bio-repository with more than 100 paediatric cancer centres worldwide, and it is addressing dire gaps in our molecular and clinical understanding of rare brain cancers.
As a researcher and doctor, she is translating molecular information into more precise diagnostic tools and improved treatments for rare and infant brain cancers. She and her research team are also working on innovative, radiation-free, brain-sparing treatment protocols.
Specifically, Huang uses genomic, epi-genomic, cell biology and animal modelling methods to develop deeper understandings of disease mechanisms and targetable pathways in rare cancers, with a focus on two particularly lethal infant brain cancers: atypical rhabdoid teratoid tumours and embryonal tumours with multi-layered rosettes.
Huang’s research to improve personalized, radiation-free treatments for infant brain cancers may also drive a much-needed shift in treatments for brain cancers in older children and adults.