Newswise — Tumors are made up of many types of cells, both cancerous and benign. The specific complexity of the cells inside brain tumors has been a trademark of the disease, one that makes treatment extremely difficult. While scientists have long known about the variety of cells within a brain tumor, the ways these tumors grow has relied on the understanding that the cells are static, unmoving and relatively fixed.
But researchers at the University of Michigan Department of Neurosurgery and Rogel Cancer Center have discovered that these aggressive tumors contain highly active cells that move throughout tissue in complicated patterns. What’s more, the accumulations of these elongated, spindle-like cells found throughout the tumor, coined ‘oncostreams,’ serve as the basis for cancerous cells’ behavior, determining how tumors grow and invade normal tissue.
Pedro Lowenstein, M.D., Ph.D., Richard C. Schneider Collegiate Professor of Neurosurgery and lead author of this study in Nature Communications, says this organized growth is what makes brain tumors so relentless. “Brain tumors are highly lethal, with less than 5% of patients living beyond five years,” he said. “Unfortunately, reoccurrence is what eventually kills patients. They receive surgery for their initial tumor, but the tumor always comes back within 12 to 18 months,” he said.
