International Registry of High-Grade Gliomas in Children and Infants

The CANSEARCH research platform is very interested in identifying areas of research that have been little studied. Because of their rarity, pediatric cancers are among them, and in particular pediatric high-grade glioma (HGG). This pathology is even rarer in young children under 3 years of age. The creation of an international register on HGG in young children therefore seems very important. The aim of the project is to systematically collect epidemiological, clinical and molecular data on young children with HGG in order to significantly improve knowledge about HGG in infants.

To achieve as rapid a growth in knowledge as possible, we conducted a retrospective study of available data from patients with hemispheric glioma of the infant type. Our retrospective study entitled “Meta-analysis of individual patient data on infant-type hemispheric gliomas (IHG)” examined the characteristics of infant-like hemispheric gliomas (IHG), a particular form of pediatric brain tumor characterized by specific genetic mutations. We analyzed data from more than 150 patients with IHG — the largest study on this condition — and found that despite generally favorable survival, these patients often experience early disease progression, underscoring the need to define optimal treatment. Complete resection surgery seems to play a crucial role in initial treatment, while further evaluation of catch-up treatment options is needed to understand their impact on overall survival, this analysis is ongoing.

Another limitation of these retrospective data is their incompleteness, which makes interpretations difficult and highlights the need for a registry that collects well-documented patient data in order to be able to draw informed conclusions.

What does this study bring to patients?

The international registry of high-grade gliomas in children aims to improve knowledge about this rare pathology in order to improve its management and the survival rate of patients.