A common virus that is harmless to most individuals may produce an important biomarker in determining the prognosis of brain cancer patients, the study looked at outcomes for 188 glioblastoma patients and found that individuals who tested positive for an antibody indicating Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) exposure lived an average of 404 days after their cancer diagnosis compared to an average of 530 days for patients who were never infected by HCMV. If we can now identify HCMV is a possible contributor to the aggressiveness of human glioblastoma tumours then this understanding takes us further down the path of understanding and treating the disease.
Today much research is focused on attacking cancerous cell growth, denying these cells energy so they die and this piece on how Cell metabolic therapy targets the mitochondria—energy producers—of cancer cells charts the current direction of research-based travel
This treatment could be as dramatic as it sounds Ultrasound blasts potent glioblastoma drug into brain tumour ! One of the most potent drugs for treatment of glioblastoma, can't be used in patients because of two problems. Firstly, it can't reach its target because it's blocked by the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from toxins and secondly the conventional formulation for this drug is toxic to the brain. Now scientists have used a novel technology for opening the blood-brain barrier with an implantable ultrasound. They have also tested a new formulation of the drug. The ultrasound technology may have broader benefits possibly enabling the use of other drugs used in other cancers for patients with brain tumours.
The Society of Neuro Oncology ( SNO) has appointed a new President for 2020 Gelareh Zadeh. Gelareh trained in London but is currently a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada. The Zadeh lab has a primary research focus in studying primary brain tumours including Glioblastoma, Meningiomas and Schwannomas. The lab focuses on several aspect of brain tumour biology including: Angiogenesis, Tumour Metabolism, miRNA and Tumour Microenvironment. For those interested here is Gelareh’s Twitter page.
This week’s main cancer story has been generated by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and we commented on our Latest News page about it. The output that cancer research offers more hope than people think is interesting and you can read our response here.
Related reading
- The 22nd annual meeting of the American Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO)
- How can understanding mitochondria help scientists predict metastatic brain tumours?
- Focused ultrasound to open blood-brain barrier
If you found this story interesting or helpful, sign up to our weekly e-news and keep up to date with all the latest from Brain Tumour Research.