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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Theres new information in the fight against the most common and lethal brain cancer in the United States.
Glioblastoma (GBM) affects more than 21,000 people in this country each year. Most patients dont live past 14 months after diagnosis. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a group of more than 100 researchers from seven cancer centers and research institutions across the nation, is dedicated to fighting the deadly disease. They previously found it was linked to an alteration of the MGMT gene and that patients with this alteration respond well to anticancer drugs called alkylating agents, particularly temozolomide. But new research reveals treatment with this drug may cause mutations in other genes necessary for DNA repair. Such mutations may lead to cancer recurrence and when tumors do reappear, they contain higher numbers of gene mutations, making them resistant to treatment.
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The researchers say when treating patients with glioblastoma, temozolomide and radiation therapy are still the best treatment, but they say this new information can help develop better therapies. These current findings should help us devise new therapies that minimize the role MGMT plays in cancer recurrence, Stephen Baylin, M.D., deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and director of this portion of the TCGA study, was quoted as saying.
It will now fall to a dedicated cadre of laboratory scientists to turn this important information into new life-saving therapies and diagnostics for cancer, John E. Niederhuber, M.D., the director of the National Cancer Institute, was quoted as saying.
SOURCE: Nature, published online September 4, 2008
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