Research Group

Ependymoma

Ependymoma is a brain cancer that affects children and adults and can start in any part of the brain or spine.  Although some tumors may be cured with aggressive surgical resection and radiation therapy, most tumors eventually recur and require further intensive treatment.  In the past decade, great strides have uncovered many of the biological mechanisms underlying the development of ependymoma, opening the door for improving cure rates for this disease.  However, due to in part to specific challenges in preclinical modeling inherent to ependymoma in specific, translation of these findings into the clinic has lagged the progress of other aggressive pediatric CNS cancers.