Multiomic Approach to Radioresistance of Ependymomas in Children and Adolescents

Treatment of childhood ependymoma, the second most frequent pediatric brain tumor, is based on surgery and radiation therapy. However, 50% relapse, mainly locally. Progress in imaging, molecular biology and radiotherapy ballistics has led us to propose the EPENDYMOMICS project, a multi-omics approach using artificial intelligence to detect the predictive characteristics of relapse, and to define innovative radiotherapy targets using multimodal imaging. We previously reported that the relapse sites are mainly located in the high-dose radiotherapy zone and that there appear to be prognostic factors for relapse based on anatomical and functional MRI abnormalities by diffusion and perfusion. In addition, recent studies in molecular biology have identified significant prognostic factors. The challenge now is to use and correlate all these findings in larger cohorts to tackle the radio-resista