[Prognostic molecular marker and molecular targeted-therapy in pediatric malignancies]

Recent progress in molecular biology has led to an increase of prognostic markers and development of molecular-targeted therapy in pediatric malignancies. Previous treatment including stem cell transplantation showed a remarkable cure rate, however, some patients are resistant to such therapy. Recently, all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) for acute promyeloblastic leukemia, imatinib for chronic myeloid leukemia, and rituximab for B-cell malignant lymphoma serve to improve the clinical outcome of these patients. Furthermore, molecular-targeted therapies including tyrosine kinase inhibitor, farnesyl transferase inhibitor, methylation inhibitor, and histone deacetyl enzyme inhibitor, were applied for clinical study. For pediatric malignancies, in addition to molecular-targeted therapy against leukemia, molecular-targeted therapies, mainly tyrosin kinase inhibitors, were applied to neuroblastoma and various types of sarcomas. Recent progress in prognostic molecular marker and molecular-targeted therapy against pediatric malignancies was here reviewed.