Dr. Upadhyaya on Outcomes for Children on the SJYC07 Trial

Santhosh Upadhyaya, MD, neuro-oncologist, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, discusses outcomes for children enrolled on the SJYC07 trial.

One of the most important goals on this trial, Upadhyaya says, was seeing if these children can be safely radiated starting at 1 year of age. Based on the trial results so far, Upadhyaya reports that it is possible. Children as young as 1-year-old with ependymomas can be safely treated with radiation to improve outcomes, he says.

The second most important consideration, Upadhyaya says, was whether radiation-deferring strategies could be used until a child’s brain matured to a point that radiation would be safe to use. Surgery and chemotherapy have been used as a bridge to get these children to 1 year of age, where they can then be treated with radiation.

Additionally, the presence of 3 molecularly distinct groups of ependymomas have been validated in this subgroup of patients, PF-A, ST-RELA, and ST-YAP. Upadhyaya notes that while RELA-fused ependymomas are the more aggressive cases, these patients had better-than-expected results on the SJYC07 trial.