Brain tumours diagnosed with a 10-minute scan

Children with the most common malignant form of brain cancer could see diagnostic wait times reduced thanks to research that’s trialled a new, quicker and less invasive way of determining which type of tumour they have.    

The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by University of Birmingham and Newcastle University, together with our hospital as the lead clinical centre. 

The collaborative team identified how the four different groups of medulloblastoma, a malignant children’s brain tumour, had a specific profile based on their individual metabolism.   

Taking cell samples from 86 tumours, a laboratory test was used to accurately identify metabolic markers including chemicals specific to the different tumour groups.     

The study also validated previous research which found glutamate, a metabolite present across all of the tumour cells, is linked closely with tumour prognosis.    

Significantly, the research could pave the way for using MRI scanning combined with machine learning to assess medulloblastomas for their ‘signature’ metabolic profiles without the need for invasive biopsy and could rapidly reduce the current three-four- week wait from presentation to full diagnosis.    

We helped deliver research into this topic with a fantastic £75,000 grant received from The Children’s Research Fund, plus contributions from Children with Cancer UK and Cancer Research UK. We’ve also invested an additional £113,000 to support further vital imaging research.