New Approach to Treating Human Brain Cancer Could Lead to Improved Outcomes

Jake Urso

October 20, 2013

Published: September 25, 2013

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130925130258.htm

Summary:

A new way of approaching the treatment for a type of brain cancer called medulloblastoma has been developed by researchers at Sanford-Burnham. The method targets cancer stem cells, which are the cells that are crucial for maintaining tumor growth, and stops their ability to reproduce rapidly by stopping the enzymes that are essential for the progression of the tumor. The process ends the ability of the cancer cells to grow and multiply, making a starting point for a new type of treatment for patients with this particular disease.

Connection:

The cancer cells have a certain set of enzymes that regulate the cell cycle enabling the tumors to grow. In concept 5.5 in the textbook we learned how enzymes have the ability to speed up cell activity. So by taking advantage of the cells dependence on the enzymes that are specific to those certain reactions the researchers were able to slow and even stop the growth of the tumor. A 2^nd way this connects to what we are learning in class is because we learned about cell division and malignant tumors in chapter 9 of the textbook. We learned that cancer is the disruption of the mechanisms that normally control the cell cycle, so by stopping like it describes in this article would be part of the solution to the problem.