Dr. Nicole Brossier, Instructor in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, recently reported that numerous factors explain why children with NF1 develop optic gliomas.
In her study, Dr. Brossier, who is a pediatric neuro-oncologist specializing in the care of children with NF1-associated brain tumors, showed that the cells which likely give rise to optic gliomas in mice with Nf1 mutations exhibit different capacities to grow as a function of the type of germline Nf1 gene mutation, the age of the mouse, and the location of the cells in the brain. Her detailed work demonstrates that Nf1 brain tumor formation in mice must occur during embryonic development, in specific progenitor cells in the brain, and in mice with some, but not all, germline Nf1 gene mutations.
This exciting report was recently published in Neuro-Oncology. Future studies by Dr. Brossier will focus on examining risk factors that underlie brain tumor formation in children.