Researchers have identified a "switch" mechanism that could provide a vital breakthrough in efforts to combat brain cancer.
The study, undertaken by researchers at the University of Calgary and published in August edition of the scientific journal Public Library of Science Biology, focused on how malignant gliomas -- the highly invasive brain tumours that cause the most common form of brain cancer -- are spread.
The switch being referred to in the study, according to Peter Forsyth, professor of oncology in the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine and director of the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute, centre on a reversal of the normal activity of cells in the brain.
"The switch, it turns out, is basically part of the normal machinery that nerve cells use to stop growing, Forsyth told CTV's Canada AM. "In this case, brain cancer cells have subverted the normal machinery that a nerve cell uses to stop growing and turned that brake into an accelerator that allows the brain cancer cells to move."
The activation of the switch, according to Forsyth is activated by protein that is already present in the brain. The fact that the switch sets brain cancer cells in motion poses critical consequences for those with brain cancer.
According to the study, the survival rate for people with brain cancer is approximately one year, and only two per cent of people with brain cancer live longer than three years. The low survival rates can be directly attributed to the motion of the brain cancer cells.
"If they could be confined to their own area then perhaps they could be cured with surgery or radiation therapy," Forsyth said. "But the problem is, especially in the brain, it's a little like putting a tablespoon and chocolate syrup in a bowl of milk and stirring it. You can't really tell where the tumour begins and the normal brain ends. It's very diffuse and moves through the brain. So it makes it impossible, basically, to cure it by surgery alone."
In addition of the low probability of surgery in this situation, gliomas are also extremely resistant to radiation and chemotherapy.
The researchers will be using the information garnered in the six-year study to focus on treatments that will stop the switch that triggers the motion of the brain cancer cells.
"We really want to find a way to either stop these cells from moving away or to bring them back in so that they can be treated locally," Forsyth said.
