Recombinant Polio Vaccine Improved Survival Rate Among Some With Aggressive Recurrent Brain Tumor

MedicalResearch: The poliovirus receptor (CD155) is an onco-fetal cell adhesion molecule with widespread expression in all solid tumors and particularly in primary CNS tumors (adult and pediatric). Recombinant nonpathogenic polio–rhinovirus chimera (PVSRIPO) was generated by replacing a critical piece of the genetic information from the Sabin type 1 polio vaccine, making PVSRIPO incapable of harming or killing normal brain cells, but toxic/lethal in cancer cells. In preclinical models, it has been demonstrated that the infection of tumor cells, leads to the release of danger signals, which triggers a recruitment of dendritic/CD4/CD8 T cells and a destruction of tumor cells by anti-tumor T cells.

NEW GENES INVOLVED IN BRAIN TUMORS

ICM: A large-scale genetic study that ICM researchers took part in, within an international consortium, highlights the relationship between genetic profiles of patients and varying susceptibility to different types of brain tumors. Gliomas represent roughly 27% of primitive brain tumors, meaning tumors that originate directly within the brain. They are split up into two main categories: glioblastomas, the most aggressive (high-grade gliomas), and low-grade gliomas. Despite current treatment options including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, glioma prognosis is generally poor. A better understanding of tumor development is crucial.

In the eye of the medulloblastoma

CNRS: Can genes normally expressed only in the eye be activated in brain tumours? Such a phenomenon, though surprising, has been observed in certain types of medulloblastoma, paediatric tumours of the cerebellum. Researchers from the CNRS, Institut Curie, Inserm and Université Paris-Sud¹, together with researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, United States), have pinpointed the role of these genes in the tumour process, thus offering new therapeutic targets. Their findings appear in the 12 March 2018 edition of Cancel Cell.

First-in-Human 'Nanomedicine' Drug Showing Promise in Solid Cancers

Columbus: The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) is one of four cancer centers involved in testing a new “nanomedicine” agent – known as BXQ-350 while in testing – in advanced solid tumors, including difficult-to-treat malignant brain tumors. BXQ-350 combines a protein called Saposin C, which is naturally expressed in humans, with nanobubbles of a fat molecule called DOPS. This combination creates a treatment agent that has the ability to selectively target cancerous tumor cells and then kill them, largely sparing the surrounding healthy tissues. These fat nanoparticles can also penetrate the blood brain barrier, which researchers say makes them particularly useful against malignant brain tumors.

New study charts single-cell composition of two major types of brain tumor

Harvard: Detailed analysis of two brain tumor subtypes has revealed that they may originate from the same type of neural progenitor cells and may be distinguished by gene mutation patterns and by the composition of their microenvironments. The results of the study, led by Harvard Medical School investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital and collaborators at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, were published in the March 31 issue of Science.

Molecule Stops Fatal Pediatric Brain Tumor

Feinberg: In research published in Nature Medicine, Northwestern Medicine scientists have found a molecule that stops the growth of an aggressive pediatric brain tumor. Every year, about 300 children under the age of 10 years old in the U.S. develop the tumor, referred to as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), which is always fatal. “This tumor kills every single kid who gets DIPG within one year. No one survives,” said the study’s first author, Andrea Piunti, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Ali Shilatifard, PhD, chair and Robert Francis Furchgott Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.

New technique slashes diagnosis time during brain surgery

Ann Arbor: A new approach to the practice of surgical pathology for brain tumor patients could make for a powerful combination: more accurate, safer and more efficient operations. Neurosurgeons and pathologists at Michigan Medicine are the first to execute stimulated Raman histology, a method that improves speed and diagnostic efficiency, in an operating room. They detail the advance in a new Nature Biomedical Engineering paper. The researchers imaged tissue from 101 neurosurgical patients using conventional methods and the new method. Both techniques, they found, produced accurate results but the new method was much faster.

Genomic profiling can guide treatment of pediatric brain tumors

Harvard: Precision medicine—in which diagnosis and treatments are keyed to the genetic susceptibilities of individual cancers—has advanced to the point where it can now impact the care of a majority of children with brain tumors, a new study by investigators at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center suggests. In the largest clinical study to date of genetic abnormalities in pediatric brain tumors, researchers performed clinical testing on more than 200 tumor samples and found that a majority had genetic irregularities that could influence how the disease was diagnosed and/or treated with approved drugs or agents being evaluated in clinical trials.

UPMC-Developed Test Rapidly, Accurately Profiles Genetics and Treatment of Brain Tumors

Pittsburgh: Brain tumors can be rapidly and accurately profiled with a next-generation, gene-sequencing test developed at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The test, called GlioSeq™, is now being used by UPMC oncologists to help guide treatment planning of brain cancers, said senior investigator Marina Nikiforova, M.D., professor of pathology, Pitt School of Medicine, and director of UPMC’s Molecular & Genomic Pathology Laboratory. Her team’s findings about the test were recently published in Neuro-Oncology.

Redefining infant brain tumours to improve treatment

Toronto: For years there was little hope for children diagnosed with rhabdoid brain tumours. Infants with the rare disease would undergo surgery, chemotherapy and sometimes radiation, but these treatments had toxic side effects and often failed. Now researchers from the University of Toronto have discovered how to categorize these tumours, allowing for more targeted treatment of this deadly disease.

Epigenetic profiles allow for more precise predictions in brain cancer

German Cancer Research Center: Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have analyzed the DNA methylation patterns in 500 ependymomas - tumors that occur in the brain and spinal cord. They were able to distinguish nine molecular subgroups. This classification enables clinicians to better predict the widely varying courses of disease that this type of cancer can take. In addition, key molecules in the various molecular groups have been identified as promising targets for more effective drug treatment in cases where chemotherapy is virtually ineffective. Ependymomas are a group of tumors that occur in children and adults. They develop in all areas of the central nervous system (CNS): the spinal cord, the cerebellum and the cerebrum. Apart from the sites where they develop, ependymomas also vary in their biology and in the clinical courses that they take.

Existing drug may treat the deadliest childhood brain tumor

Stanford: For the first time, scientists have identified an existing drug that slows the growth of the deadliest childhood brain tumor. The drug restricted the tumor’s growth in a lab dish and improved the survival time of mice that had the tumor implanted into their brains, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, in collaboration with colleagues at other institutions. The work is noteworthy because the disease, a brain stem cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, is nearly always fatal and lacks an effective treatment.

Brain tumors may be new victims of Ebola-like virus

Yale: Brain tumors are notoriously difficult for most drugs to reach, but Yale researchers have found a promising but unlikely new ally against brain cancers — portions of a deadly virus similar to Ebola. A virus containing proteins found in the Lassa virus — like Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever virus found in some parts of Africa — not only passed through the formidable blood-brain barrier but destroyed brain tumors in mice, according to research released April 16 in the Journal of Virology.

Mobile phones not causing increase in brain tumours

Auckland University. New-Zealand: The risk of brain tumours has not changed significantly with increased mobile phone use, according to new research from the University of Auckland.

A dog lives on; now the stage is being set for treating humans

Virginia Tech. US: The National Cancer Institute awarded Scott Verbridge, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics, a $386,149 research grant to move a glioblastoma treatment a step closer to being used on humans.

Glioblastoma: Three Genes Tied to Radiation Resistance in Recurrent Tumors

Ohio University. US: The lethal brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) frequently recurs after treatment and patients have an average survival of less than two years. This study identified three genes that play key roles in enabling certain GBM cells to survive radiation therapy. The findings suggest that blocking one or more of these genes might offer an effective new treatment for recurrent, treatment-resistant GBM.

Mutated ATRX Gene Linked to Brain and Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors is Potential Biomarker for Rare Adrenal Tumors Too

Pennsylvania University. US: A somatic mutation in the ATRX gene has recently been shown as a potential molecular marker for aggressive brain tumors, such as gliomas, neuroblastomas and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.  Now, for the first time, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found that the same mutated gene may serve as a much-needed biomarker for the pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PCC/PGL) that become malignant. These rare neuroendocrine tumors are typically benign, but when they go rogue, they become very aggressive.

Glioblastoma

Glioblastomas are malignant astrocytic tumors (grade IV according to the WHO classification). Glioblastomas represent the most frequent brain tumors in adults, with an annual incidence of around 1/33,330.

Frequency is estimated at 1/100,000. They may occur at any age, but 70% of cases are seen in patients between 45 and 70 years of age. The tumors are usually located in the brain hemispheres, but can be found anywhere in the central nervous system.