Researchers find fatal flaw in childhood tumors
Childhood tumors aren’t duplicates of their adult counterparts. They often carry distinct mutations, respond differently to drugs, and stem from other causes. Those are some of the reasons that only four new drugs for treating cancer in children have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the past 25 years, versus more than 100 drugs for adult cancers. Now, researchers say they’ve found a new way to fight cancer in children, one that targets a tumor cell’s ability to repair its DNA.