Kyung Hee University Professor Jongbae Park's Team Identifies Seven Subtypes of Medulloblastoma

Foundation for Personalized Therapy Established
A New Chapter in Pediatric Brain Tumor Treatment

Kyung Hee University announced on July 6 that a research team led by Professor Jongbae Park from its College of Medicine has demonstrated the potential for patient-specific prognosis prediction and personalized targeted therapy for pediatric malignant brain tumors known as medulloblastoma, through an integrated proteogenomic analysis.

Professor Jongbae Park, Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University

This study was conducted with support from the Lee Kun-hee Pediatric Cancer and Rare Disease Support Project Group.

The joint research, which included Seoul National University, Korea Brain Research Institute, Korea University, Kookmin University, and University of Ulsan, was published in the June issue of the international journal "Experimental & Molecular Medicine."

Medulloblastoma is a malignant brain tumor that commonly occurs in children, and conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy have carried significant risks of severe long-term side effects for growing children.

Additionally, because the biological characteristics differ for each patient, there has been a need for more precise treatment strategies.

To address this, the research team utilized multi-omics data from five platforms, including mass spectrometry-based protein analysis, and successfully reclassified medulloblastoma into a total of seven more precise subtypes (subgroups), as opposed to the previous four groups.

The results showed that these subdivided subtypes exhibited distinct biological profiles and prognoses.

Certain subtypes (SHHβ, G4γ), which display relatively clear neuronal differentiation characteristics, were associated with favorable clinical outcomes, providing grounds for adjusting treatment intensity.

In contrast, in high-risk subtypes with poor prognoses, the team identified activated protein signaling pathways linked to tumor growth and recurrence, and presented candidate substances that could potentially be used as personalized targeted therapies in the future.

Professor Jongbae Park of Kyung Hee University stated, "It has been difficult to fully explain actual patient treatment responses based solely on conventional molecular classifications. The significance of this study lies in its simultaneous analysis of proteins and phosphorylation signals involved in cellular function, which has led to the identification of clinically meaningful therapeutic targets. We plan to develop diagnostic panels for practical clinical use in the future."

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