Researchers Discover New Molecular Driver of Retinoblastoma

Despite decades of medical advances, children who develop the pediatric eye cancer retinoblastoma often lose their vision or an eye due to a lack of specific, targeted therapies and a poor molecular understanding of the cancer. Now researchers at UT Southwestern and the University of Miami have discovered that a molecule – estrogen-related receptor gamma, or ESRRG – becomes hyperactive and promotes tumor cell survival in retinoblastoma. Blocking ESRRG, the team reported in Science Advances, kills retinoblastoma cells.

“Our discovery could lead to innovative new treatments for this cancer that take advantage of this dependence of retinoblastoma on ESRRG,”  said study leader J. William Harbour, M.D., Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology at UT Southwestern. Before joining UTSW last year, Dr. Harbour served as Vice Chair for Translational Research at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami.

Read the full article from UT Southwestern.

Inactive remnant of retinoblastoma tumor following successful intra-arterial chemotherapy. Credit: UT Southwestern.