‘DNA loops’ in pediatric brain tumors double relapse risk, study finds

A study of newly created databases of medulloblastoma has found that patients with tumors containing circular extrachromosomal DNA—loops of DNA found outside of regular chromosomes—are twice as likely to relapse and three times as likely to die within five years of diagnosis. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, pave the way for research that could yield new treatments for this aggressive childhood brain cancer.