Four University of Michigan research teams have made the bracket of 64 teams for STAT Madness, a virtual tournament of science. They were picked for their groundbreaking work on brain cancer, heart transplant, dementia care and deadly fungal infections published in 2023.
Tag: Glioma
Bypassing the blood-brain barrier to improve brain tumor diagnosis
A collaborative team of NIH-funded researchers is developing a way to obtain DNA shed from brain tumors using focused ultrasound. Their first-in-human study could be an important step towards improving the way brain tumors are diagnosed.
Gene therapy for brain tumor shows promising early results in humans
A new study from the University of Michigan Department of Neurosurgery and Rogel Cancer Center shows promising early results that a therapy combining cell-killing and immune-stimulating drugs are safe and effective in extending survival for patients with gliomas, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer.
Study finds improved survival for incurable brain tumor, providing ‘a crack in the armor’
For the first time, researchers have found a potential drug candidate that improved outcomes for patients with a type of childhood brain tumor for which there are no effective treatments. The compound, called ONC201, nearly doubled survival for patients with diffuse midline glioma (DMG) or diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), compared to previous patients.
AI Tool Decodes Brain Cancer’s Genome During Surgery
New AI tool enables in-surgery genomic profiling of gliomas, the most aggressive and most common brain tumors.
Awake surgery for cancerous brain tumor brings referee back to the mat
After an awake surgery to remove a cancerous brain tumor, a Michigan man is living “more deliberately” than ever — officiating a high school wrestling state championship and participating in research for a potential cure.
Cancerous brain tumor cells may be at ‘critical point’ between order and disorder, study suggests
Glioblastoma cells are poised near a “critical point” of order and disorder — meaning, the cells possess some form of large-scale coordination throughout the whole tumor that allows them to respond in practical unison to attempts to kill tumor cells, such as chemotherapy or radiation, a study suggests. Researchers say disrupting the large-scale organization of brain tumors may result in more powerful ways to treat and one day eliminate brain tumors.
New drug delays progression of glioma, a deadly brain cancer
In an international study co-led by UCLA, scientists have shown that a new targeted therapy drug can extend the amount of time people with a subtype of glioma are on treatment without their cancer worsening. The finding suggests a possible new treatment option for people with the slow-growing but deadly brain tumor.
ASCO: Targeted therapy for early breast cancer, progress treating recurrent glioma, PSMA PET scan advances and more
Physicians and scientists from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center will discuss the latest research and clinical trial results on combination therapies for breast cancer, a potential new treatment for patients with recurrent glioma, and advances in PSMA PET guided radiotherapy for patients with prostate cancer, among other topics, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.
Head injuries could be a risk factor for developing brain cancer
Researchers from the UCL Cancer Institute have provided important molecular understanding of how injury may contribute to the development of a relatively rare but often aggressive form of brain tumour called a glioma.
Rethinking How Cancer Cells Evade Targeted Therapy
In a study publishing December 20 in Nature Cancer, UCSF researchers found that phenotype switching, as opposed to genetic evolution, may be the escape mechanism that explains the failure of precision therapies to date. They found that some cells shift to a mesenchymal, radiation-resistant phenotype (state) as a stress response following standard therapy.
Unraveling the biology behind aggressive pediatric brain tumor reveals potential new treatment avenue
Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have identified a novel treatment approach to an aggressive type of pediatric brain cancer, using therapies already approved to treat cancer. The team developed a mouse model of pediatric glioma with a histone mutation called H3.3-G34, which allowed them to study the tumor’s biology in the presence of a functional immune system, revealing a promising outlook for long-term survival.
ASTRO issues clinical guideline on radiation therapy for IDH-mutant glioma
A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides recommendations on the use of radiation therapy to treat patients with isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-mutant grade 2 and grade 3 diffuse glioma. Evidence-based recommendations outline the multidisciplinary planning and delivery techniques to manage this subset of central nervous system (CNS) tumors.
Sylvester Leads Study on New Treatment Option for Brain Tumor that Relapses or Fails to Respond to Standard of Care
Taken twice daily, oral olutasidenib helped to stabilize relapsed or refractory gliomas in heavily pretreated patients with less toxicity than standard of care treatment, according to a study led by Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami School…
Dynamic cells linked to brain tumor growth and recurrence
Tumors are made up of many types of cells, both cancerous and benign. The specific complexity of the cells inside brain tumors has been a trademark of the disease, one that makes treatment extremely difficult. While scientists have long known about the variety of cells within a brain tumor, the ways these tumors grow has relied on the understanding that the cells are static, unmoving and relatively fixed.
A nanoparticle and inhibitor trigger the immune system, outsmarting brain cancer
Scientists at the University of Michigan fabricated a nanoparticle to deliver an inhibitor to brain tumor in mouse models, where the drug successfully turned on the immune system to eliminate the cancer. The process also triggered immune memory so that a reintroduced tumor was eliminated—a sign that this potential new approach could not only treat brain tumors but prevent or delay recurrences.
Study Sheds Light on Mechanism of Liposome Accumulation in Tumors
Dmitri Simberg, PhD, associate professor in the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy, released a new study of the effectiveness of different types of fluorescent labels used to monitor the accumulation of liposomes in tumors. The study was published on July 1, 2021, in ACS Nano.
New immunotherapy target discovered for malignant brain tumors
Scientists say they have discovered a potential new target for immunotherapy of malignant brain tumors, which so far have resisted the ground-breaking cancer treatment based on harnessing the body’s immune system. The discovery, reported in the journal CELL, emerged from laboratory experiments and has no immediate implications for treating patients.
Study Identifies Exposure to Common Food-Borne Pathogen Linked to Rare Brain Cancer
A new study suggests a link between toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection and the risk of glioma, a type of brain cancer, in adults. The report, appearing in the International Journal of Cancer, finds that people who have glioma are more likely to have antibodies to T. gondii (indicating that they have had a previous infection) than a similar group that was cancer free.
New Treatment Approach for a Common Glioma Subtype Shows Promise in Animal Models
A combination approach to treating a common subtype of glioma — which includes metabolic reprogramming and immunotherapy — led to complete tumor regression in 60% of study mice.
New Biomarkers for Glioma Treatment Response
Biomarkers using mass cytometry can assess patient response to an emerging vaccine for a specific pediatric brain tumor, according to a recent multi-center study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Ludwig Lausanne Study Charts the Immune Landscape of Multiple Brain Cancers
A Ludwig Cancer Research study has profiled, in a sweeping comparative analysis, the distinct immune landscapes of tumors that arise in the brain, or gliomas, and those that metastasize to the organ from the lungs, breast and skin.
Massive study reveals how “hypermutated” malignant brain tumors with many mutations escape chemotherapy and immunotherapy
An analysis of more than 10,000 gliomas and clinical outcomes reported in Nature by scientists in Boston and Paris found that glioma patients whose tumors were hypermutated actually had no significant benefit when treated with checkpoint blockers.
Study Uncovers Unexpected Connection Between Gliomas, Neurodegenerative Diseases
New basic science and clinical research identifies TAU, the same protein studied in the development of Alzheimer’s, as a biomarker for glioma development.