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NEW ORLEANS, Mar 27 (Reuters Health) - A team of German researchers said Tuesday it has discovered that a rare pediatric brain cancer is actually not one, but two types of tumor. One of the tumor types appears to be caused by two different genetic mutations, and the discovery should help pave the way for a targeted drug therapy to eradicate that type.
The University of Bonn researchers presented their findings at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting here.
By analyzing both recently removed and stored tissue from brain tumors, the scientists found that medulloblastoma, a brain cancer that affects 400 to 500 American children each year, has two different subtypes. A quarter of medulloblastomas, which they called desmoplastic, seem to be caused by mutations in two genes that are important to normal development and the brain and other organs, said lead investigator Dr. Torsten Pietsch, a professor of neuropathology at the University of Bonn.
The mutations likely cause the genes to be overactive, which could lead to uncontrolled growth of cancer cells, Pietsch said.
At the same time he and his colleagues discovered the importance of these two genes, researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University medical schools found a substance that seems to block the uncontrolled cell growth from the mutations. The discovery could lead to a drug targeted to stop this over-activation, Pietsch explained.
The genetic mutations were not found in so-called "classic" medulloblastomas, which account for 75% of cases.
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