A new Italian study in 'bioinformatics' has uncovered several hitherto unknown mutations of a serious tumour in children, paving the way for new and more targeted treatment of the neuroblastoma. The malign tumour of the nervous system strikes around 15,000 children and teenagers around the world each year, and over a hundred in Italy.

It is considered the leading cause of death and the third neoplasy for frequency after leukemias and childhood brain tumours. The new study has been published in the eBioMedicine journal by a team of researchersi led by Mario Capasso and Achille Iolascon of Ceinge, respectively associate professor and lecturer in Medical Genetics at the Federico II University in Naples.