Study: Thinking Can Speed Up Brain Tumour Growth

Thinking can fire up nerves in the brain and can lead to the proliferation of brain tumours, experts from Stanford University said last week. According to Cell, activity in the cerebral cortex has an impact on high-grade gliomas, which account for 80 percent of malignant tumor cases today. The Stanford researchers discovered this through an experiment on mice implanted with human brain cancer.

"This tumor is utilizing the core function of the brain, thinking, to promote its own growth," said the study's author Michelle Monje, a researcher and neurologist at Stanford, according to NPR.org. To test their hypothesis, the researchers used optogenetics, a method that uses light to control brain cells to stimulate cell activity within the tumour site. Surprisingly, it worked.

"We don't think about bile production promoting liver cancer growth, or breathing promoting the growth of lung cancer," Monje was quoted as saying by Medical Express. "But we've shown that brain function is driving these brain cancers."

"Our new findings indicate that this metaphorical forest fire has been difficult to extinguish because there is something akin to gasoline seeping up from the soil."

The results point to further research on the other causes of brain cancer and how to stop its growth. The cause of glioma is still unknown. The origins of glioblastoma, one type of rare glioma arising from astrocytes, is also yet to be uncovered, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. Glioblastoma accounts for 52 percent of all glioma cases worldwide.

About 50 percent of patients diagnosed with the disease die within a year, while 90 percent of patients die within three years of diagnosis. In Australia, 1,000 people are diagnosed with brain cancer annually, a report on The Courier Mail revealed. Forty percent of patients die within 14 months of diagnosis due to recurrence, while only three to five percent of patients live beyond five years.

The Courier Mail also noted that a series of trials using clinical drug KB004 will be launched this year, 2015, in Brisbane for subjects suffering from recurring glioblastoma. The clinical trials will be held at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and the Austin Hospital in Melbourne. It will be conducted by QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and will involve 20 participants.

US-based company Nascent Biotech (OTC:NBIO) is also working on developing a similar therapy that can be used to treat brain cancer. Based on human immunoglobulin antibody, the therapy, Pritumumab, has been granted orphan drug designation by the US Food and Drug Administration recently.

Pritumumab was derived from the B-cell of a tumour-draining lymph node of a patient suffering from cervical cancer, the company's website revealed. It targets ecto-domain vimentin, a novel target and protein expressed on the cell surface of malignant tumors. The target has not been pursued by any other biotechs in the company's niche. Pritumumab has an overall response rate of 25 to 30 percent among patients.

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au