Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a rare, aggressive type of brain tumour which affects children. It occurs in a part of the brainstem which controls many of the body’s most critical functions. DIPG is difficult to treat with surgery because the cancer is diffuse; there is no well-defined border suitable for operation.
A quarter of children with DIPG have a mutation in a gene known as ACVR1; there are no approved treatments to target this mutation.
Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust have used AI to identify a potential treatment for the cancer. They found that combining the drug everolimus with another called vandetanib could enhance the latter’s capacity to pass through the blood-brain barrier in order to treat the cancer. Both drugs are already approved for treating other cancers.
So far, the combination has proved effective in mouse models – increasing the amount of vandetanib in the DIPG...