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Precision Molecular Pathology of Neoplastic Pediatric Diseases pp 67–86Cite as

Molecular Targeted Therapy of Pediatric Neoplasms

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Abstract

Survival in pediatric cancer has overall increased significantly over the last several decades. However outcomes for patients with a subset of aggressive pediatric malignancies as well as those with relapsed and refractory cancer remain very poor. New targeted therapies are needed for these diseases. There are fewer mutations found in pediatric cancers than in most adult cancers, and more often, there is a single genetic driver caused by either a translocation or loss of heterozygosity.

Here we present an overview of a variety of targeted therapies in various stages of development in pediatrics. Targeting metabolic differences and aberrant signaling is frequently used in standard therapy. Increasingly, targeting cancer cell surface-associated proteins is being utilized as well. Cancer immunotherapy is a rapidly evolving field that utilizes the patient’s immune system in various ways to recognize and attack cancer cells. This includes antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, checkpoint inhibition, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, bispecific T-cell engagers, and other more experimental therapies. Additionally, we discuss several other modalities with unique mechanisms of targeting cancer cells.

There is a large amount of work being done to expand the use of targeted therapies in pediatrics. These studies require collaboration between investigators and institutions to broaden the availability of targeted therapies in the future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA

    Elizabeth A. Sokol MD

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA, USA

    Navin R. Pinto MD

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  1. Elizabeth A. Sokol MD
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  2. Navin R. Pinto MD
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Correspondence to Elizabeth A. Sokol MD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, University of Utah/ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

    Larissa V. Furtado

  2. Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Aliya N. Husain

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Sokol, E.A., Pinto, N.R. (2018). Molecular Targeted Therapy of Pediatric Neoplasms. In: Furtado, L., Husain, A. (eds) Precision Molecular Pathology of Neoplastic Pediatric Diseases . Molecular Pathology Library. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89626-7_5

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