Missing link, scientists can have found to common brain cancer

Thursday, Aug. 4 HealthDay News)-A map of genetic mutations associated with the second most common form of brain cancer seems the biological cause of tumors, researchers report show.

Created protein-coding genes in seven samples of tissue from oligodendroglioma tumors the card by sequencing and focused on recurrent mutations in two genes (CIC and FUBP1), previously not these types of tumors associated with.

The genes appear the missing link in the "two hit" theory of cancer development, so the scientists. That is, each cell in the body has two copies of the 23 pairs of chromosomes, the thousands of genes, to produce the protein. If a copy is missing, the other copy for the lack of protein can form. But if the second copy fails, it can be cancer.

Scientists have known for years, that's "first hit" in Oligodendrogliomas in regions 1 and 19, which together, causing the loss of many genes chromosomes will be shown.

In this study, researchers found mutations in the CIC and FUBP1 on chromosomes 1 and 19, suggesting that they cause the "second hit" cancer required are.

Further mutations in the Genentech-the cell processes signal rules-samples have been found in an additional 27 tumor . All of the tumor samples in the study analyzed two thirds of CIC and FUBP1 mutations, had, said the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists.

"If we find gene that mutates in the most tumors, it is likely that the way by this gene is regulated crucial for the development and the biology of the tumor," Nickolas Papadopoulos, Associate Professor of Oncology, said in a press release Center.

The study appears in the journal scienceAug. 4.

About 20 percent of the brain is Oligodendrogliomas, making mostly in age from 30 to 45 and in most cases on the frontal lobe in cells that are to coat the neurons. Treatment includes surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. Median survival is 10 years.

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