Children with cancer are missing out on precision medicine, study finds

Only a small number of children with solid tumour cancers are able to access targeted precision medicine that is already available for adults, a study has found.

Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London set out to evaluate whether their methods of DNA analysis could inform clinical treatment in young people with solid tumours.

Precision medicine uses DNA sequencing to identify gene mutations for targeted cancer treatment and is included in the NHS long term plan to try to improve cancer outcomes in England. Precision medicine is specific and minimises side effects.

For their study the researchers checked for 91 common cancer genes in 255 samples from …