Malignant brain tumours occur at a rate of approximately 5 or 6 in 100,000 people. 80% of those tumours are malignant gliomas, a type of tumour that comes from the glial cells in the central nervous system. These types of tumours are more likely to occur in older individuals who are over the age of 50.
The most aggressive and common form of brain tumour is called Glioblastoma (glioblastoma multiforme or grade IV glioma). More than half of all brain tumours are glioblastomas. The disease has an extremely poor prognosis — 50% of the people diagnosed die within a year and 90% die within three years.
Current forms of treatment rely on surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, they are fairly ineffective at keeping a patient alive for more than a few years. Researchers have been trying to understand why glioblastomas are so difficult to treat and have discovered why — cancer stem cells.
Any organ that has a high rate of cellular proliferation has two forms of stem cells — dormant stem cells and highly active stem cells. The cells that reproduce at a rapid rate are often lineage restricted and can only turn into one type of cell while the inactive stem cells often have the capacity for pluripotency — the ability to turn into many types of cells.
Researchers have discovered that tumours contain a subset of cells with the same characteristics as stem cells, called cancer stem cells. They can differentiate into multiple types of cells and spread throughout the body.
Many types of tumours have cancer stem cells, including glioblastoma. These type of stem cells give glioblastoma a greater ability to self-renew, creating more tumours and spreading throughout the body.
Similar to normal stem cells, this stem cells can be dormant or highly proliferative. The dormant cells can awaken and sustain long-term tumour growth while the proliferative cells quickly release shorts bursts of tumour cells.
Researchers are now working towards new forms of treatment that prevent the cancer stem cells from helping tumours grow and metastasise throughout the body.
Source: Glioblastoma – Are Cancer Stem Cells The Ultimate Target?
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