Canadian researchers have traced genetic glitches in a family of eight genes which might be responsible for medulloblastoma, a malignancy primary brain tumor which is the most common malignancy found in children of very young age and is especially deadly in case of babies under 18 months of age.

Conducting the largest genetic study of childhood brain cancer, ever, Toronto researchers sequenced the DNA of brain tumors obtained from 800 children worldwide and found a family of eight genes capable of spawning medulloblastoma. This study was published online Sunday in the journal Nature Genetics.

While in normal state, these eight genes tell the neurons in the rear part of an infant's brain when to stop growing. But when one of these genes falters due to mutation, these cells don’t know when to stop. 

"So they're stuck in a perpetual adolescence and they just keep dividing and dividing and dividing, until eventually they form a brain tumour," explained principal researcher Dr. Michael Taylor, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

Taylor's lab will now proceed with testing of drugs to see if any are able to stop the out-of-control division of cells which leads to the continual growth of the tumor; in effect making them reach a mature state and stop creating havoc.

"We think if we could design drugs that target this pathway ... they would kill tumor cells without affecting the normal growing brain the way current treatments do," said Taylor.