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IMAGE: Previously only suspected, now made it visible thanks to the molecular reporter: where human tumor cells and brain cells of a mouse meet, the tumor cells have a different identity. view more
Credit: Gargiulo Lab, MDC
Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in adults. Roughly five in every 100,000 people develop this type of cancer each year. The diagnosis amounts to a death sentence: Even after surgical resection followed by radiation and chemotherapy, the glioblastoma will kill the patient in a few months. This is because the tumor invariably returns after treatment, and in a more aggressive form than before.
Molecular reporters produce fluorescence to expose the allies of tumor cells
Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in adults. Roughly five in every 100,000 people develop this type of cancer each year. The diagnosis amounts to a death sentence: Even after surgical resection followed by radiation and chemotherapy, the glioblastoma will kill the patient in a few months. This is because the tumor invariably returns after treatment, and in a more aggressive form than before.
Researchers investigating glioblastoma tissue always find immune cells inside the tumor. They have therefore long suspected that these cells strengthen the tumor, instead of fighting it. A team led by Dr. Gaetano Gargiulo at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) has now supplied direct evidence of this.