Patient's Own Fat Cells May Help Fight Deadly Brain Cancer

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Cancer / Oncology Also Included In: Stem Cell Research;Neurology / Neuroscience Article Date: 13 Mar 2013 - 3:00 PDT

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Study leader Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa and colleagues, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, write about their findings in the 12 March issue of the online open access journal PLOS ONE.

The current standard treatments are chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, but even when patients receive all three they rarely live more than 18 months after diagnosis.

Glioblastomas are not easy to remove. While the surgeon may remove as much of the tumor as possible, there is a risk that some stray cancer cells are left behind in areas that are difficult to reach.

These particularly nimble cancer cells migrate across the entire brain and form new tumors. This ability to migrate rapidly to other parts of the brain is thought to be the main reason for the low rate of cure in this type of cancer.

In a 2012 issue of PloS Biology, researchers report finding a protein that may reveal how glioblastoma moves and invades nearby healthy brain tissue.

"The biggest challenge in brain cancer is the migration of cancer cells. Even when we remove the tumor, some of the cells have already slipped away and are causing damage somewhere else," says Quinones-Hinojosa, who is a professor of neurosurgery, oncology and neuroscience.

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Patient's Own Fat Cells May Help Fight Deadly Brain Cancer