Paediatric cancer articles from across Nature Portfolio

A collection of 131 multi-panel pediatric tumor PDX models are generated and characterized in a comprehensive effort to provide support for basic and translational research and treatment development in advanced pediatric malignancies.

The response rates of pediatric cancers to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies are disappointingly low, particularly when compared to the remarkable impact of these drugs in many adult cancers. A new study leverages clinical trial data to identify biomarkers that might improve patient selection in future clinical trials.

Integrative approaches continue to improve diagnostic accuracy for pediatric brain cancers, but much more is needed from researchers, governments and regulators if precision medicine with curative treatments are to become a reality.

Somatic mutations in cancer genomes are caused by multiple mutational processes, each generating characteristic mutational signatures. Our systematic mutational signature analysis of single base substitutions and small insertions and deletions in pediatric cancers indicates that the contribution of signatures of homologous recombination repair defect is limited and identifies a leukemia-specific signature.