What is TARGET? The Therapeutically
Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) Initiative seeks to
harness the power of modern genomics technologies to rapidly identify valid therapeutic
targets in childhood cancers so that new, more effective treatments can be developed
and ultimately bring new hope to children and their families who face the devastating
burden of these diseases.
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TARGET Initiative researchers have identified genetic changes that predict a high likelihood of relapse in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In the first TARGET research findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, January 7 advance online edition, researchers note that while further research is needed to determine how the gene mutation of IKZF1 (IKAROS) lead to leukemia relapse, the findings from TARGET are likely to provide the basis for future diagnostic tests to assess the risk of treatment failure. By using a molecular test to identify this genetic marker in ALL patients, physicians should be better able to assign ALL patients appropriate therapies by determining their IKZF1 molecular status. Read More |
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The TARGET Initiative pursues three primary areas of research:
In the TARGET Initiative, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) actively collaborates with several world-class institutions to identify valid therapeutic targets in childhood cancers. Learn more
The TARGET Initiative is currently focused on identifying therapeutic targets in two childhood cancers:
More than 3,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with either ALL or neuroblastoma each year. These cancers were the first chosen for study because of their prevalence among children, the inadequacy of current treatment options, the ongoing NCI-supported efforts to molecularly characterize these cancers, and the availability of clinically annotated, high-quality human tissue collections that met TARGET's strict scientific, technical, and ethical requirements. Learn more
