Cure for deadly brain cancer may be on its way

Glioblastoma is an aggressive cancer that accounts for most malignant brain tumors. An Israeli researcher may have found its weak spot

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Health and Medicine | Comments | April 14, 2021

*PhD student Eilam Yeini and Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro at Tel Aviv University. Photo courtesy of TAU*

Glioblastoma is a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer, accounting for half of all primary brain cancers. It has a 40 percent survival rate after a year and just 5% after five years, even after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered a potential treatment, tested on mice and 3D lab models so far.

If it works on humans, glioblastoma could become “chronic but manageable”

If it works on humans, glioblastoma could become “chronic but manageable,” says Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, director of the university’s Cancer Biology Research Center and Cancer Research and Nanomedicine Laboratory. “It could even cure it completely.” What Satchi-Fainaro and her team discovered is that glioblastoma results in part from a failure in the brain’s immune system, which leads to the amplification of cancerous cell division. This immune system misstep is tied to the secretion of a protein called P-Selectin (SELP) which, when bound to the brain’s microglia immune cells, alters their function so that, rather than inhibiting the spread of cancer cells, they do the opposite.-- More...

Activating the brain's immune system against the deadly cancer Glioblastoma prevents from spreading

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