UCalgary researchers find new way to study aggressive cancer

Posted August 7, 2008

Dr. Aru Narendran, assistant professor in the departments of Oncology and Pediatrics, and his colleagues at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine have developed a unique method for growing atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumour (AT/RT) in a laboratory setting.

AT/RT is a rare and aggressive brain cancer that grows in infants and small children. The survival rate for children under three at diagnosis is less than 10 per cent. The team's findings were published on July 24, 2008 in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology.

The new method of growing AT/RT in cell culture will enable cancer scientists around the world to study this cancer more closely. The team at the University of Calgary and Tom Baker Cancer Research and Treatment Centre was able to initiate the growth of AT/RT by adding small amounts of brain fluid, the same fluid in which these cells normally grow, to the Petri dish in the lab.

The cancer cell line is called KCCF1, after the Kids Cancer Care Foundation, which funded the research along with the Brain Tumor Research Foundation of Canada. KCCF1 is already making headway in helping scientists understand the cancer better and identifying possible drugs for treatment.

"We've been able to study this cancer cell line," says Narendran, "and we've managed to pinpoint a potential molecular pathway it uses to grow. It appears that the cancer cells are excessively stimulated to grow by a natural hormone found in the body."

Armed with new information about AT/RT, Narendran's research team tested a new drug called AEW-541 specifically targeted to inhibit the function of this growth factor to see if it would inhibit the growth of the cancer cells. As expected, even small amounts of the drug stopped the growth of KCCF1 cancer cells. "It's still preliminary," says Narendran; "we need to do a lot more work to understand how such drugs might be used safely in children, but it looks promising."

Identifying new targeted drugs with the potential to inhibit cancer growth is ideal because their exquisite specificity could mean, in addition to other medical benefits, fewer side effects for kids. Cancer treatments typically have short- and long-term effects on growing bodies, from hair loss and nausea to blindness, deafness, organ failure, loss of limbs and learning difficulties. Young children treated with radiation for AT/RT may experience permanent problems with thinking, learning and growing.

About the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary

The U of C's Faculty of Medicine is a national leader in health research with an international reputation for excellence and innovation in health care research, education and delivery. Through its educational programs, the Faculty of Medicine trains the physicians and scientists who will lead the next generation of health practitioners. Through its clinical work, continuing medical education programs, and close relationship with the Calgary Health Region, the Faculty of Medicine moves new treatments and diagnostic techniques from the laboratory bench to the hospital bedside efficiently and effectively, improving patient care.

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