Projects we fund

Overview

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a form of soft-tissue sarcoma that starts in the muscle cells. Its biology is mainly unexplored, particularly how it forms when the infant is developing as a foetus. The cancer is thought to originate from undifferentiated foetal cells that have developed incorrectly. These cells don’t usually exist after the child is born, but they somehow persist in children with rhabdomyosarcoma. Understanding why this happens is essential for improving how we treat the disease. By researching this, Dr Sam Behjati and his team hope to use their findings to identify weaknesses that can be targeted through new treatments for the disease. To do this, they are building a cell atlas – a guide to the cells that form rhabdomyosarcomas. They will analyse the tumour samples gathered at the time of initial diagnosis and again if patients relapse, then use the results to help develop new treatments. They intend to profile 250,000 rhabdomyosarcoma cells and will make their atlas available so that other researchers can use it to inform their own investigations, potentially helping children with many other forms of cancer too.

Potential impact

There has been little progress in understanding the mechanisms behind rhabdomyosarcoma over the past two decades, which makes the insights this study could provide all the more important. The findings may also have relevance beyond rhabdomyosarcomas. The approach of developing the atlas could also be replicated for other cancer types, and the findings themselves may also have relevance.