Oncogenomics and Pediatric Health

Dear Colleagues,

This Topic will report on developments, challenges, and opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and blood diseases in children in developed and developing countries. Genome and epigenome profiling and large-scale molecular profiling is key in redefining both the way pediatric hematologic cancers are categorized and how they are increasingly being treated, as molecular alterations are emerging as powerful prognostic markers and targets. With continued coordinated efforts to evaluate novel therapies in the pediatric population, genomically based therapies will become more common in the pediatric oncology clinic in the future. Rules for how treatment outcomes are analyzed are emerging, and molecular targets are being used to develop novel therapies. The landscape for pediatric blood cancer therapy is just beginning to realize the potential predicted by precision oncogenomics. These developments have created a new environment, one in which parents with a child newly diagnosed find themselves navigating a very different landscape than the one a parent might have encountered in 2010. In the end, the goal of oncogenomics research in children is translation to the clinic, so as to achieve accurate diagnosis, a clearer risk stratification, and effective, less toxic therapies. 

In this Topic, we invite authors from developed and developing countries to contribute original research and review articles focusing on different aspects of pediatric cancer development, causes, maintenance, and therapeutic strategies. We will consider articles on different pediatric cancers in relation to the developments in precision oncogenomics. This Topic is being run in collaboration with the Fondation Botnar.

Fondation Botnar is a philanthropic foundation based in Basel, Switzerland, that champions the use of AI and digital technologies to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people in growing urban environments.

The contents of this Topic should provide an insight into current pediatric cancer precision medicine efforts in developed and developing countries, reflecting only a microcosm of the current applications of oncogenomics in this bustling space of clinical translation.

This Topic will publish research, commentaries, policy perspectives, historical insights, and clinical and laboratory observations.

The findings from the Topic will be presented in an international conference in the second half of 2021.

Prof. Dr. Gabriella Pravettoni
Prof. Dr. Jonathan A Lal
Dr. Denis Horgan
Topic Editors