New Brain Cancer Treatment Targets Stem Cells And Tackles Tumour Growth

A new experimental approach to treating a type of brain cancer has been developed by researchers.

Medulloblastoma targets cancer stem cells - critical for maintaining tumour growth - and halts their ability to proliferate by inhibiting enzymes essential for tumour progression.

The process destroys the cancer cells' ability to grow and divide, paving the way for a new type of treatment for patients with this disease.

The research team, led by Robert Wechsler-Reya Ph.D. at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, discovered that the medulloblastoma cancer cells responsible for tumour growth and progression (tumor-propagating cellsTPCs) divide more quickly than normal cells.

Correspondingly, they have higher levels of certain enzymes that regulate the cell cycle. By using small-molecule inhibitors to stop the action of these enzymes, the researchers were able to block the growth of tumour cells from mice as well as humans.

"One tumour can have many different types of cells in it, and they can grow at different rates. By targeting fast-growing TPCs with cell-cycle inhibitors, we have developed a new route to assault medulloblastoma... and have opened the window to preventing cancer recurrence," said Wechsler-Reya.

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For their research, the scientists tested the effectiveness of cell-cycle inhibitors in a specific type of brain cancer called Sonic Hedgehog (SHH)-associated medulloblastoma.

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New Brain Cancer Treatment Targets Stem Cells And Tackles Tumour Growth