The Children’s Tumor Bank receives grants from the government and the Children’s Cancer Fund for national precision medicine projects

Within the framework of the National Childhood Cancer Project GMS, large-scale molecular genetic analyzes (whole genome sequencing and whole transcriptome sequencing) for clinical purposes are performed on tissue material from children throughout Sweden with suspected cancer.

The overall goal of the project is to provide and implement more accurate diagnostics and accurate prognoses, thus providing the opportunity for better treatment, follow-up and care. To start the GMS Children’s Cancer Project, the Children’s Cancer Foundation contributed SEK 15 million and then decided to allocate an additional amount of SEK 24 million to the project over the period 2022-2026.

The Children’s Tumor Bank is the grant recipient of all funds from the Children’s Cancer Foundation and is involved in coordinating and leading parts of the project, which is also being conducted as a study. The Children’s Tumor Bank is also responsible for long-term data management, including making genomic and transcriptomic data available for more ethically tested research in pediatric cancer.

It is very pleasing that the project has received additional funding, especially as it is now working well in all pediatric oncology centers to offer comprehensive genetic testing and include pediatric cancer patients in the study. Joanna SandgrenPhD and Head of the Pediatric Tumor Bank Unit. We also now know that it can directly benefit in terms of precise diagnosis and modified treatment in the form of goal-directed therapy for a smaller proportion of children, for example, with the information these new analyzes provide for care.

The next step is for the regions themselves to be able to bear the costs of sequencing as part of healthcare. A scientific article containing a summary of the first 117 patients was published in May of this year. Further pooling is currently underway within the project to be able to evaluate and report clinical benefits in a larger cohort, as well as to conduct health economic evaluations.

The project’s ability to also facilitate further research studies using the resulting data is important and contributes to increased biological knowledge of pediatric tumors, which may lead to the development of better treatments with increased survival and reduced side effects for affected children.