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Cancer

Drain the swamp to beat glioma

Nature volume 549, pages 460–461 (2017)Cite this article

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Efforts to treat brain tumours by targeting cancer cells have had only modest clinical success. It emerges that targeting a protein secreted from neurons adjacent to the tumour might be a useful alternative approach. See Letter p.533

Brain tumours known as malignant gliomas are almost always lethal. Indeed, this cancer is the leading cause of brain-tumour-related death in children and adults1. Despite tremendous advances in understanding the cell biology and genomics underlying glioma development and progression, patient survival rates have remained stagnant, and few effective therapies exist. Venkatesh et al.2 reveal on page 533 that a protein secreted from non-malignant brain cells in the microenvironment surrounding the tumour can be therapeutically targeted. Such intervention might offer a fundamentally new approach to glioma treatment.

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Figure 1: Targeting brain tumours by focusing on their microenvironment.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neurosurgery,

    Michael D. Taylor & Vijay Ramaswamy

  2. Division of Haematology/Oncology and the Department of Paediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, M5G 1X8, Ontario, Canada

    Michael D. Taylor & Vijay Ramaswamy

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  1. Michael D. Taylor
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  2. Vijay Ramaswamy
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Correspondence to Michael D. Taylor.

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Taylor, M., Ramaswamy, V. Drain the swamp to beat glioma. Nature 549, 460–461 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24141

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