‘Barcoding’ brain cancer cells helps untangle complexity, points to treatment targets
TORONTO — A Canadian-led international research team is using a “barcoding” system to investigate the growth patterns of individual cells that make up the deadliest form of brain cancer, with the hopes of improving treatment.
Known as a glioblastoma, it’s considered among the “nastiest” of human cancers and is the kind of brain tumour diagnosed last year in Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie.
Each year in Canada, about 1,500 adults and 150 children are diagnosed with a glioblastoma, an aggressive tumour that is notorious for its complex genetic makeup and poor response to treatment. Glioblastoma has an average five-year survival rate of only about 10 per cent, and most people succumb to the disease within roughly 15 months of diagnosis.
But research led by the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the University of Cambridge in the U.K. is taking a novel approach to better understanding how individual cells in the tumour contribute to its growth and what types of drugs might best target this highly invasive brain cancer.