About Retinoids Dietary vitamin A—retinol—retinoic acid (RA). several RA metabolites exist:; all trans RA(ATRA); 9-cis-RA; 13-cis-RA; et al. Retinoids’ effect in driving cells differentiation and apoptosis holds promise for cancer therapy. Best example: APL;

Altucci and Gronemeyer, Nat.Rev.Cancer, 2001

Induces differentiation Induces apoptosis Induces differentiation Altucci and Gronemeyer, Nat.Rev.Cancer, 2001

Rationale for retinoids in medulloblastoma Retinoids Secreted by radial glia and Choroid plexus Literature suggests the induction of neuroblastoma apoptosis by RA;

BMP-2 signaling pathways Waite and Eng, Nat.Rev.Genetics, 2003

Signaling crosstalk Is this paradigm true for this study? Waite and Eng, Nat.Rev.Genetics, 2003 Altucci and Gronemeyer, Nat.Rev.Cancer, 2001

Conclusion and discussion Retinoids induce apoptosis in medulloblastoma cells and reduce tumor growth in vivo Retinoid induction of BMP-2 mediates apoptosis in medulloblastoma cells regardless of whether or not they express BMP-2