Ewing's tumor genetics

Child cancer : Discovery of genetic susceptibility factors for Ewing's tumors. Institut Curie Foundation (France) and Nature Genetics. 2012-02-12

Cells from metastasized Ewing's sarcoma. Source: Plos Biology

Ewing's tumor is a rare form of bone cancer that affects children, with a higher occurrence frequency among populations of European origin. Olivier Delattre and his team, David Cox and Gilles Thomas have tried to understand why. The answer may be found in two small regions of the genome, with two genetic variants observed with a higher frequency among European populations. The risk of developing Ewing's tumor is twice higher for children who harbor one of these two genetic variations.This discovery is published online in Nature Genetics on February 12, 2012.