Breakthrough 'may help brain cancer sufferers'

Brain cancer is one of the most deadly of all cancers, largely owing to the difficulty in treating patients with the disease.

Every year, 4,500 are diagnosed with the condition in the UK, with over 3,600 going on to die as a result.

Even with treatment, the average survival time for people suffering from brain cancer is 12-14 months, but healthcare experts in the US believe they may have found a solution to this.

At the moment, most brain cancer treatments for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of malignant and aggressive brain tumour, are treated through radiation, chemotherapy and surgery.

Though this is usually effective in the short-term, specialists at the Tufts University School of Medicine, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences in Boston believe they have found a more specific treatment.

Experts at the facility believe that the STAT3 gene regulates cancer stem cells associated with the condition, but claim this could be targeted to suppress the growth of tumours.

A more effective method of treatment could extend the lives of many private health insurance holders, said senior author professor Brent Cochran.

"STAT3 has been shown to be activated in a number of human tumours. This study is one of the first to show, however, that STAT3 regulates cancer stem cells," he stated.

As many current treatments do not target the cell specifically, most patients' genes remain extremely resistant to therapy, he added.

"It is one of the few genes linked to the propagation of cancer stem cells and it appears to regulate processes involved in the six hallmarks of cancer: growth, metastasis, angiogenesis, evasion of apoptosis, tissue invasion and cell immortalisation," Dr Cochran elaborated.

Now the team hopes to direct the new methods towards affordable medical insurance customers in an effort to have an impact on the 3,600 deaths from brain cancer each year in the UK.

By Stephen Tate

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