Brain cancer: Study focuses on forgotten cells
Glioblastoma is a guileful enemy. While most of the brain tumour can often be removed surgically, in virtually every case the tumour reappears. One reason for this is that sporadic, infiltrative tumour cells will remain in the brain even after most careful surgery. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now subjected these 'forgotten' cells to closer scrutiny for the first time. While doing this, they were able to show that many of the fundamental properties of these tumour cells were substantially different from the cells in the midst of the tumour mass. The findings could offer an opportunity to explain why radiation or chemotherapy cannot entirely prevent this deadly disease to reoccur. The study will now be published in the Annals of Neurology (DOI: 10.1002/ana.22036)...