Clinical & Translational Research > Paediatric Cancer Biology > Prof. Carlo Dominici

Visiting Professor
Division of Child Health,
School of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine Liverpool University

Childhood malignant tumors are rare (in Western countries 1 out of 320 children and adolescents will be diagnosed with cancer by age 20); yet they are the first cause of death for disease in the age between 1 and 19. Whilst about 70% of these children and adolescents live for at least five years after diagnosis, the outcome for patients with metastatic neuroblastoma or rhabdomyosarcoma is still very poor and novel therapeutic strategies are needed.

Our translational research is mainly aimed at:

i) the identification in neuroblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma cells of pathways and molecules critical in modulating survival, growth, local invasion, metastatization and drug-resistance;

ii) the evaluation of agents able to selectively activate or inactivate these pathways and molecules in in vitro and in vivo neuroblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma models.