Encouraging research into liquid biopsy use for Wilms tumour diagnosis and treatment

Jocelyn Charlton, a PhD student supervised by GOSH BRC supported Professor Kathy Pritchard-Jones, together with colleagues, has published research findings in Genome Biology describing an epigenetic biomarker in Wilms tumour tissue that could be detected in the circulation of patients with Wilms tumour.

Jocelyn Charlton, a PhD student supervised by GOSH BRC supported Professor Kathy Pritchard-Jones, together with colleagues, has published research findings in Genome Biology describing an epigenetic biomarker in Wilms tumour tissue that could be detected in the circulation of patients with Wilms tumour.

Wilms tumour is the most common paediatric kidney cancer and there is a clinical need for a molecular biomarker to assess treatment response and predict relapse. A molecular biomarker detectable through liquid biopsy would also represent a much less invasive way to diagnose the subtype of renal tumour and predict its response to chemotherapy prior to surgery to obtain histology. This has the potential to improve treatment planning.  A Q&A in Biome, BioMed Central’s online magazine answers further specific questions on the implication of this research for patients with Wilms tumour.