Precision oncology for pediatric patients is provided at the Department of Pediatric Oncology of University Hospital Brno and Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University. This department is one of two comprehensive pediatric oncology centers in the Czech Republic and a member of the European Reference Network for pediatric oncology (ERN PaedCan), diagnosing and treating 150 new cancer patients annually. For approximately 50 of these patients, the existing standard protocol procedures are suboptimal, and for more than a decade, highly personalized, molecularly guided approaches—precision medicine—have been applied here. Over 700 children with cancer have already been involved in the precision medicine program. Pediatric patients from other CEE region countries (Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, and others) also participate in our precision oncology program.
A specific characteristic of pediatric oncology is that the biology of children's tumors is significantly different from adult tumors. The doubling time for most of them is only a matter of days or, at most, weeks. Thus, these are highly dynamic diseases and, in the vast majority of cases, are not preventable. Additionally, preventive screenings aimed at earlier detection are unlikely to improve outcomes.
The best way to improve survival and reduce the risk of long-term consequences is to respect the dynamically changing individual biology of the tumor and the individual characteristics of each patient as the tumor carrier. The best way to approach this represent the principles of precision medicine, which have been implemented into clinical practice for a long time in the Department of Pediatric Oncology at the University Hospital Brno and the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University (MU), in collaboration with CEITEC MU (cancer genomics) and IHOK Faculty of Medicine, MU (molecular genetics), the Department of Pathology, University Hospital Brno and the Faculty of Medicine MU (cancer genomics, immunohistochemistry), and the Faculty of Science MU (phosphoproteomics).
The implementation of precision oncology is ensured by the multidisciplinary committee of the Molecular Subgroup of the Oncological Indication Committee for Pediatric Tumors, which usually meets once a month in a hybrid format to allow the participation of professionals from other countries.
The diagram illustrating the various levels of molecular characterization of an individual tumor, as performed for the purposes of precision oncology at the Department of Pediatric Oncology, is carried out in the laboratories of CEITEC MU (link) and the Department of Pathology, University Hospital Brno and Faculty of Medicine MU (link) (group of prof. Slaby, Petra Pokorna).
Contact person:
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Prof. Jaroslav Sterba, M.D., Ph.D.Head of the Department of Pediatric Oncology Email: |