Study Uncovers Drivers of Brain Tumor Growth, Could Open New Treatment Approaches

A new study has uncovered key drivers of brain cancer growth that could make it possible to predict or even slow down the rate at which these tumors regrow. This could open a new chapter in personalized cancer treatment.

The research team, led by Professor Parag Katira of San Diego State University, together with Moffit Cancer Center’s Ana Gomes and Noemi Andor, discovered how brain tumor cells grow and transform in response to the environment in which they find themselves. These findings could enable doctors to predict the cancer’s response to any treatments to be administered.

The team focused their attention on glioblastoma, the most aggressive kind of brain cancer. The researchers specifically studied ploidy, which looks at how many chromosomes are present in each cell. The team found that tumors with different levels of ploidy reacted differently to nutrient and oxygen levels within the brain. This influences how soon tumor regrowth occurs after surgical intervention to remove the growths.

To arrive at their findings, the team leveraged a mathematical model referred to as Stochastic State-Space Model of the Brain. It uses medical images, patient data as well as lab research to forecast the way glioblastoma cells move, grow and react to treatments. The model provides insights on how the cancer evolves and how the environment influences this evolution.

The multidisciplinary team analyzed brain scans taken from patients with glioblastoma. The objective was to track the regrowth of the tumors. They found that the speed at which tumors regrow varies based on the ploidy levels within them and the locations of those tumors within the brain.

Andor remarked that their discovery could be instrumental in enabling researchers to target energy supply as a way of slowing down tumor growth.

Some of the main findings of the research are that nutrient and oxygen supply in the brain plays a part in tumor growth and recurrence, and that some malignant cells are quicker at pivoting to sugar synthesis in order to obtain energy. Oxygen availability influences this process.

The research creates a need for further study on how malignant cells utilize energy and how this could be helpful to doctors as they make treatment decisions for different patients. This study, and other recent ones on glioblastoma offer new information on this hard-to-treat brain cancer. Companies like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) focusing on bringing to market efficacious medications against brain cancer can find ways to enrich their R&D efforts using this latest scientific data.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP

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