Among the cancers that claim young lives, neuroblastoma stands as one of the most relentless — taking roughly one in nine children lost to cancer, with fewer than half of high-risk patients surviving five years. A study published in Nature now offers a quiet but significant shift in how researchers understand the disease: RAS signaling, long considered a minor player in neuroblastoma because it rarely mutates there, appears to drive tumor growth even in its normal, unmutated form. If that insight holds in clinical trials, a class of drugs already in development could become relevant not for a
RAS inhibition shows promise against neuroblastoma regardless of mutation status
Neuroblastoma is an aggressive pediatric malignancy with 40-50% five-year survival rates in high-risk cases and accounts for 11% of all pediatric cancer deaths.