Molecular Markers of Pediatric Solid Tumors—Diagnosis, Optimizing Treatments, and Determining Susceptibility: Current State and Future Directions

Abstract

Advances in molecular technologies, from genomics and transcriptomics to epigenetics, are providing unprecedented insight into the molecular landscape of pediatric tumors. Multi-omics approaches provide an opportunity to identify a wide spectrum of molecular alterations that account for the initiation of the neoplastic process in children, response to treatment and disease progression. The detection of molecular markers is crucial to assist clinicians in accurate tumor diagnosis, risk stratification, disease subtyping, prediction of treatment response, and surveillance, allowing also for personalized cancer management. This review summarizes the most recent developments in genomics research and their relevance to the field of pediatric oncology with the aim of generating an overview of the most important, from the clinical perspective, molecular markers for pediatric solid tumors. We present an overview of the molecular markers selected based on therapeutic protocols, guidelines from international committees and scientific societies, and published data.