New Delhi, Jan 17 || A team of Australian researchers has tested a new way of treating childhood brain cancer by combining two medicines in lab studies.
The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, found that using the two treatments together may work better than using either on its own.
The team from the Children's Cancer Institute and University of New South Wales, tested a combined therapy approach on a group of difficult-to-treat brain tumours: diffuse midline gliomas (DMG) in the lab.
This group includes diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) -- a rare but fatal childhood brain cancer and a type of DMG. Children diagnosed with DIPG usually survive for about 12 months.
"We recognise that no single drug treatment is able to eradicate the most aggressive of brain cancers on its own," said Conjoint Associate Professor Maria Tsoli, from UNSW.
She said this is what led the researchers to see if combining treatments could work better.