QQR, 360°video, tumour tissue necrosis and YTHDF3 expression

Brain Tumour Research

1 min read

12 December 2020

The first five years of our centre partnership with the University of Plymouth came under rigorous scientific review this week.

The role of stem cells in tumours transitioning from low grade to high grade, and new drug targets and biomarkers for Meningioma, were just two of the areas looked at, on what was described as Plymouth’s “pathway to progress.”

There was praise for the blending of discovery science and clinical proposals and the centre can now look to move into clinical trials in the future.

At the end of this quinquennial review meeting, our patient representative at the meeting said of the Plymouth centre “A patient would be very reassured that money is being well spent here”

This week’s blog on our website is topical and highly recommended reading – “Funding research of the highest quality.”

To coincide with the quinquennial review at Plymouth we have released an interactive video that gives viewers a virtual walk around the research centre

The video’s creator and producer Rachael White, Digital Marketing Manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: “This is a special lab tour that lets you explore the lab virtually. It’s as if you were on a real lab tour without having to leave home! The viewer is in control and can find out more about different areas in the lab, what individual scientists are focusing on and the pieces of research equipment necessary to conduct cutting edge research, as they navigate their way around the lab using their mouse.”

This innovative, intriguing and informative piece of videography can now be seen on the Brain Tumour Research website here.

Rachael has written a blog about the project’s genesis, production and delivery which you can read here.

In other news from around the world;

New research shows that specific types of white blood cells may cause brain cancer tissues to die – but that's not good news because higher amounts of this tissue death have been associated with poor survival in patients with aggressive glioblastomas. Click here to find out more about how Glioblastoma patients with higher degrees of necrosis have a poorer chance of survival.
Although the numbers for brain metastases are high, the mechanisms that allow cancer to spread to the brain remain unclear. A recently published study could offer hope for the development of future therapies, though, by showing how a poorly understood gene known as YTHDF3 plays a significant role in the process. Recent findings show that increased YTHDF3 expression correlates with brain cancer metastases and poor survival outcomes in breast cancer patients. According to scientists involved “This study could provide a marker to help doctors diagnose brain metastases early, as well as provide a target for the development of new drugs to prevent and treat brain metastases."
Reporting on some industry news now as a medical device company in the field of nanomedicine focused on oncology has announced the completed installation of the new NanoTherm treatment centre for patients with brain tumours at the Hufeland Clinic in Mühlhausen, Thuringia, Germany. With the opening of the new NanoTherm treatment centre, patients with recurrent malignant brain tumours can now be treated with MagForce's novel NanoTherm technology. The centre management were bullish saying; "The insidious thing about a malignant brain tumour or glioma is that, as a rule, the tumours return some months after the initial operation and standard treatment. At this point, there are no longer any standard therapies that can be applied. This is where NanoTherm therapy begins," Click here to read the press release from MagForce AG announcing the opening of new NanoTherm Treatment Centre.
Although the summit closed yesterday, for those of you with a particular interest in drug development for GBM, there may be things of interest to extract from a visit to this site Glioblastoma Drug development Summit
Finally, this week I think we all know that the brain can be affected by a number of different types of tumour and this leads to serious complications such as epileptic attacks, brain edema, haemorrhage, or thrombosis. With no uniform standards available for the diagnosis and treatment of these common symptoms an international team of researchers comprising experts from the leading oncology societies ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) and EANO (European Association of Neuro-Oncology) has now compiled new international guidelines and standards for treating the complications of brain tumours

That’s it for this week – please do check out the video mentioned at the beginning of the update – I may be biased but it is fantastic – what a way for our community to see what their funding for brain tumour research actually looks like.