According to the research from British Cancer Research Institute, when brain tumor-medulloblastoma relapses, there will be a unique genetic pathway.This study was published in Cancer Cell.

Relapse following conventional treatment is the single most adverse event in medulloblastoma. There are currently no effective therapies for children with relapsed medulloblastoma. Although clinical and biological features of the disease at diagnosis are increasingly well understood, biopsy is rarely performed at relapse, and few biological data are available to guide more effective treatments.

Moreover, disease features have been identified at diagnosis that are consistently associated with clinical outcomes. For high-risk disease, these are MYC gene family amplification, TP53 mutation, chromosome 17 defects, large-cell anaplastic pathology, metastatic disease, and subtotal surgical resection.

In this study, scientists show that medulloblastomas develop altered biology at relapse, which is predictive of disease course and cannot be detected at diagnosis. They have discovered the emergence of P53-MYC interactions at relapse, as biomarkers of clinically agressive relapsed disease, which can be modeled and routine clinical practice, to direct palliative care and the development of improved treatment strategies.

Reference:

Hill R M, Kuijper S, Lindsey J C, et al. Combined MYC and P53 Defects Emerge at Medulloblastoma Relapse and Define Rapidly Progressive, Therapeutically Targetable Disease[J]. Cancer Cell, 2014.