Pemetrexed and gemcitabine as combination therapy for the treatment of Group3 medulloblastoma

We devised a high-throughput, cell-based assay to identify novel therapeutic compounds to treat Group3 medulloblastoma (G3 MB). Mouse G3 MBs, grown as neurospheres, were screened against a library of approximately 7,000 compounds including FDA-approved drugs. We identified two FDA-approved drugs, pemetrexed and gemcitabine that preferentially inhibited tumor proliferation in vitro compared to control neurospheres, and substantially inhibited tumor proliferation in vivo. When combined, the two drugs significantly increased survival P7 Trp53-/-, Cdkn2c-/- neurospheres and MYC mouse cells were compared treated and untreated with drugs pemetrexed+gemcitabine