Irish scientists have made a major advance in understanding the most common type of cancer found in very young children.

Neuroblastoma is the most common type of cancer found in children under the age of two. It refers to cancer of the neuroblasts - a type of nerve cell found throughout the body.

Usually, these immature cells mature into functioning nerve cells. However, when a child develops neuroblastoma, these cells do not mature, becoming cancer cells instead.

This latest research by a team at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) focused on the role of a gene known as CHD5. This gene is deleted in children with the most severe forms of this cancer.

The Trinity researchers, working with a team from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, found that if a child has no CHD5, then their neuroblasts are not capable of maturing.

"Understanding the role of genes whose deletion or inactivation is associated with disease is central to designing intelligent therapeutic strategies. Our work has unravelled the normal function of the CHD5 gene, and suggests that its inactivation in neuroblastoma leads to an inability of these cells to correctly mature," explained lead TCD researcher, Dr Adrian Bracken.

He said that in the future, they hope to investigate the potential benefit of reactivating the CHD5 gene in neuroblastoma cells, ‘which usually retain one silenced copy of this gene'.

"We hope this research will lead to new and improved treatments for children with this disease," Dr Bracken added.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Developmental Cell.