While not as prevalent as other cancer diseases, every day, 43 children are diagnosed with cancer. Children’s cancer affects all ethnic, gender and socio-economic groups and more than 40,000 children undergo treatment for cancer each year. 12% of children diagnosed with cancer do not survive, while 60% of children who do survive cancer suffer effects in later life, such as infertility, heart failure and secondary cancers.
Recurrence rates and secondary complications also occur with pediatric cancer patients – with no current clinically accepted route of testing for these complications, we’ve set out with institutes in Southeast Asia and Taiwan in hopes of identifying fusion gene and microRNA expression biomarkers that can indicate the patient’s risk of recurrence or risk of secondary complications for early intervention and better treatment selection.
Through QuarkBio’s PanelChip™ Analysis System, we hope that our joint research project can contribute to the ongoing clinical research for pediatric cancer and one day bring better healthcare tools to pediatric cancer patients.
