Childhood cancer

All families in Sweden with a child who is diagnosed with cancer will be offered to participate in a special project within Genomic Medicine Sweden, which is financed by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund. This project will increase knowledge on why childhood cancer occurs and improve possibilities for making a faster and more detailed diagnosis. The analyses may also enable the ability to detect targets for treatment at an early stage.

A little boy wearing boxing gloves stands next to a drip stand

Roughly 300 children are diagnosed with cancer each year in Sweden. Today diagnostics, care and treatment of children with cancer are already well coordinated on a national level. We are now working to enable routine analysis of all genes, so called whole genome sequencing, for all types of childhood cancer. In 2020, a multicenter ethics permit was approved for the project. In 2021, the project has started operating in Sweden’s six pediatric oncology centers. At the end of 2022, around 300 pediatric cancer patients had participated in whole genome sequencing of tumor/and or germline. During 2023, genomic data from included patients will be collected as a national resource for research under the auspices of the Swedish Childhood Tumor Biobank.

We will also develop tools to analyse and clinically interpret the genomic data that results from these analyses. In addition to whole genome sequencing, other supplementary sequencing techniques will be used. One important challenge is to perform these analyses quickly enough for the information to benefit individual children. In the long run, results from the project will also provide important knowledge about how similar analyses can be implemented for more common cancers affecting adults. 

This investment in childhood cancer is funded by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund (Barncancerfonden) and is conducted in collaboration with the Swedish Childhood Tumor Biobank (Barntumörbanken), the Nordic Childhood Leukemia Biobank (Nordiska barnleukemibiobanken), and the Swedish healthcare system.

BrainChild – AI and health data to accelerate the development of better treatments for children with cancer

The BrainChild project was launched with the aim of creating a national platform for childhood cancer that links genetic data, medical images, and clinical information. The purpose of BrainChild is to facilitate research and support clinical decisions by gathering information that is currently often scattered across different systems. The project will both strengthen research opportunities and provide better decision support for healthcare.

The goal is for more children with cancer to survive, and for them to do so with fewer side effects and a better quality of life. By collecting and structuring large amounts of health data, BrainChild aims to create conditions for more accurate diagnoses and individualised treatments for children with cancer, and, in the long term, enable AI-based analysis.

BrainChild was initiated by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund and is run and developed in collaboration with Genomic Medicine Sweden.

Read more about BrainChild.

Co-chair Childhood cancer

Magnus Sabel
Fulya Taylan
Hartmut Vogt

Introduction disease areas

Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS) focuses primarily on disease areas where there is currently definite evidence that suggests that genetic analyses can be used to diagnose disease, or where genetic deviations are important to prognostic assessment, choice of treatment and follow-up. We work primarily with rare diseases, solid tumours, hematological malignancies, infectious diseases and pharmacogenomics. GMS also has a particular focus on childhood cancer.