Gene Network May Lead to Brain Cancer Breakthrough

Gene Network May Lead to Brain Cancer Breakthrough
Surveying Network of Genes Helps Doctors Predict Patient Survival, Attack Tumors
By MICHAEL SMITH

MedPage Today North American Correspondent
TORONTO, July 14, 2009

In what one expert called a "fantastic breakthrough," researchers have described a network of genetic changes involved in the development and progression of fatal brain tumors.

Researchers may have uncovered more genetic clues behind the development of brain cancers, such as the one for which Senator Ted Kennedy has received treatment.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)While research interest in brain tumors has always been high, the treatment of brain cancer has been the focus of heightened media interest since Senator Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a tumor more than a year ago.

The details of Kennedy's condition have been closely guarded, but the senator has not been present in Congress for the latest healthcare reform debate.

In the new study, researchers led by Dr. Markus Bredel of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago analyzed tissue from almost 200 tumors and identified the same pattern of mutations occurring in the same area or territories on 10 chromosomes.

WATCH: The Artist's SanctuaryWant to Lose Weight? Have Brain Surgery By carefully tracking these so-called "landscape genes," the researchers were able to predict how long the patients would live, according Bredel's study, which was published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that about 51,000 new cases of brain and central nervous system tumors are diagnosed in the United States each year. That number includes both malignant and non-malignant tumors, but the researchers in this study concentrated on glioblastoma -- a type of tumor that is uniformly fatal.


Analysis of glioblastoma in several patient populations yielded persistent patterns of genetic alteration involving so-called "territories" on 10 chromosomes, according to Bredel and his colleagues.

According to NCI statistics, brain tumors are more likely and more deadly in whites than in other races, and men have a higher brain cancer rate than women.

The finding that landscape genes appear to predict survival may also have an implication for treatment of glioblastoma, since attempts to intervene with therapies targeting single genes have not been successful.

The complexity of the landscape model "helps explain the lack of therapeutic efficacy of strategies targeting single gene products," the authors said.