What is DMG?
Diffuse Midline Glioma
DMG is a malignant brain tumor that primarily affects children and young adults. It's characterized by rapid growth and the tendency to spread into surrounding healthy brain tissue like spider webs, making it difficult to treat. It is the same cancer as DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma) due to the same, extremely aggressive mutations, but just differ in location of the brain.
What you need to know
Rare, but-not-so Rare
Pediatric Brain Cancer diagnosis have now surpassed leukemia diagnoses in the US, and are the number one leading cause of mortality in children. Each year, 300 to 500 children in the United States are diagnosed with Diffuse Midline Glioma, or DMG.
Gliomas are the most common form of brain malignancy and are associated with resistance to therapy and high mortality.
A greater sense of urgency can not only save families from the suffering we endured, but open a path to find a cure for all pediatric brain cancers .
Outdated & Ineffective Treatment
Unlike most other pediatric cancers, survival for Diffuse Midline Glioma has not changed in over 50 years. The average survival rate is 8-11 months, with about 10% of children survive at least 2 years after diagnosis.
The only standard of care for DMG is radiation, a treatment that has remained unchanged since Neil Armstrong's daughter received her diagnosis in 1962.
Given the failure of conventional treatments, greater efforts must be made to fund the development of targeted care.
Lack of funding and research
Only 4% of all federal funding for cancer research is allocated for pediatric cancer research. And of that 4% - only 1% is allocated for pediatric brain cancer - amounting to a mere 0.04% of all federal funding for cancer research.
For a condition that is the most common type of brain tumor in children under the age of 5, these numbers are startling.
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Resources
Study finds improved survival for incurable brain tumor, providing ‘a crack in the armor’ (Michigan Medicine, August 16, 2023)
For the first time, researchers have found a potential drug candidate that improved outcomes for patients with a type of childhood brain tumor for which there are no effective treatments. The compound, called ONC201, nearly doubled survival for patients with diffuse midline glioma or diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, compared to previous patients.
Gliomas lean on pyrimidines (Nature Reviews Cancer, September 21, 2022)
Gliomas are the most common form of brain malignancy and are associated with resistance to therapy and high mortality.
Now, two studies reveal a targetable metabolic signature in glioma that could be exploited to treat these cancers.
A druggable addiction to de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis in diffuse midline glioma (Cancer Cell)
Unlike most other pediatric cancers, survival for DMGs has not changed in over 50 years. Given the failure of conventional therapeutic modalities, considerable effort has been devoted to development of targeted therapeutics.
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