Tumor Specimens Offer New Insight into Brain-cancer Cell Formation

A team of scientists have gained some interesting new insights from brain-tumor specimens taken from neurosurgery cases at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, finding out more about just how healthy brain cells begin to transform and develop into tumors. The work may help identify new drugs to target oligodendroglioma, a common type of brain tumor, at its earliest stage, when it is generally most treatable. Any potential drugs identified will have to prove safe and effective in clinical trials, a process that can take several years.

As described in the journal Cancer Cell, the UCSF team found that the pool of cells from which oligodendroglioma tumors emerge normally divide “asymmetrically” by splitting into two unequal parts – like giving birth to fraternal twins who look different and have distinct fates. When these normal cells transform into cancer cells, they switch gears and begin dividing symmetrically, essentially giving birth to identical twins instead.

“This happens early – before the tumor forms, and it may provide a point to intervene in the process of tumor initiation,” said Claudia Petritsch, PhD, an assistant professor with the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center who led the research. In their research, Petritsch and her colleagues used genetically engineered mice to identify that a protein called NG2 controls this switch, and they are working on ways to target genes that regulate the process as a way of fighting oligodendroglioma and perhaps other brain tumors. To read more about the findings and the full release, click here.