Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer

Most childhood cancers contain tumor cells that are diverse in nature. In an individual patient's tumor, some cells divide to produce two more dividing tumor cells (symmetric proliferation), resulting in faster tumor growth, while other tumor cells divide and produce one daughter that will divide and one daughter that will not (asymmetric proliferation), resulting in slower tumor growth. We have found that a protein called Eya1 is usually present at high levels in a common brain tumor of children called medulloblastoma, and that Eya1 pushes cells to divide symmetrically.

Collaborator

Michelle Monje, MD/PhD, Stanford University

Project Summary

Children and young adults with inherited mutations in the GATA2 gene have an increased risk of developing blood cancers. These cancers arise from abnormal blood stem cells. The mutant stem cell clone multiplies and expands, acquiring additional mutations that promote leukemia formation. The process is poorly understood, especially in the context of predisposition syndromes to myeloid cancers.