14/12/2010

A global study of the Vall d'Hebron Universitary Hospital, led by the group of Gene Expression and Cancer at Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology has been able to identify cells which are the initiators of a brain tumor, glioma, and having the ability to regenerate after surgery. The results of the study, which focused specifically on the glioma, the most common malignant brain tumor, have been published in Cancer Cell, signed by a 20 researchers from Vall d'Hebron, including the responsible for the cardiovascular diseases group at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Dr. David Garcia-Dorado, or the responsible of the neurotrauma and neurosurgery group at VHIR, Dr. Juan Sahuquillo.Researchers have managed to identify among all the glioma cells which are the initiators of that brain tumor and which have ability to develop and regenerate after surgical treatment. The head of the study and the group of gene expression and cancer, Joan Seoane, indicated that research has identified the cells that initiate this type of tumors that have high levels of CD44 protein and Id1."This can have an impact on many treatments", Joan Seoane said, "because being able to identify and mark the cells responsible for recurrence, we can determine which treatments eliminate or not these cells". The same research team has also found that a drug is able to eliminate these malignant cells, called hormone inhibitor TGF-beta. This drug is currently in clinical trials in the Research Unit in Molecular Cancer Therapy-La Caixa at Hospital Vall d'Hebron. The glioma is the most frequent brain tumor that in Europe affects more than 13,000 people each year and is classified into four grades, with the fourth grade, also called glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive, with very low survival rates.