Investigation of relapsed Burkitt lymphoma - towards improved treatment options and survival for childhood in high and low-income countries (360G-Wellcome-211639_Z_18_Z)

Unlike other childhood cancers genomic abnormalities are currently not used in the clinical management of aggressive Burkitt lymphoma (BL) and we cannot predict which children will or will not respond to therapy. There is huge disparity between outcome for children with BL in high- and low-income countries ( > 90% vs 50%) and BL remains a substantial global health challenge. For those patients who do not respond to front-line treatment or who relapse, outcome is dismal in both settings. There is, therefore, a clear clinical need to identify biomarkers and new therapeutic targets. Knowledge of the key genetic defects driving the pathogenesis of BL and disease progression is essential to develop rational targeted therapies suitable for both low- and high-income countries. In this project we will use cutting-edge next-generation sequencing approaches to fully characterise the genome complexity of patients with relapsed disease. Analysis of matched diagnostic and relapse samples from children diagnosed with BL in the UK and Malawi will enable the key abnormalities associated with disease progression to be identified. Our overall aim is to identify the specific abnormalities which could be targeted by novel drugs to improve survival for children diagnosed who are currently not cured by frontline treatment.