The Biologic and Prognostic Role of Replicative and Oncogene Induced Senescence

This study led by principal investigator Dr. Uri Tabori, Hospital for Sick Children, will study why some PLGA tumors stop growing. Using this alternative research strategy, researchers will build on previous results that demonstrated that a mechanism that controls tumor growth arrest, defined as senescence, predicts outcome in PLGA. With the collaboration between three of the leading pediatric neuro-oncology centers in North America, researchers plan to expand the team’s preliminary findings and to determine the pathways that control senescence in PLGA. Upon completion of this project, they will be able to better predict which patients are unlikely to have tumor progression (and can thus be spared from current toxic therapies), and they will uncover novel targets as therapeutic options for PLGA. Furthermore their findings will provide a framework for a new understanding of astrocytoma behavior in children.

Funded in 2007.