The principal objective of this study is the metabolic characterization of pediatric solid tumors, with a particular focus on neuroblastoma (NBL) and fusion positive sarcoma (FPS), which will allow the detection of tumor specific metabolic alterations that can be exploited with the aim of developing novel therapeutic strategies and biomarkers.
Cellular metabolism studies provide insight, in a complementary way to genomics, into processes acting downstream from oncogenes and oncogenic fusion proteins, and such insight may point toward previously unrecognized therapeutic targets or onco-metabolites that are traceable as robust biomarkers for response. The investigator's new approach to use an in-vivo comprehensive analysis of metabolic reprograming in FPS/NBL has never been performed in childhood FPS/NBL and will complement genomics studies for these cancers. For this study, the investigators plan to obtain tumor samples at time of surgical biopsy/resection and study their metabolic signatures.
