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Genetic Mutations May Explain a Brain Cancer’s Tenacity

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Genetic Mutations May Explain a Brain Cancer’s Tenacity
Topic #3
Genetic Mutations May Explain a Brain Cancer’s Tenacity
Tina Hesman Saey
ScienceNews.Org
Angel Briana Gray
1/7/13
Glioblastoma are tumors that arise from supportive tissue of the brain. These tumors are usually highly cancerous because the cells reproduce quickly and they are supported by a large network of blood vessels. Glioblastomas are usually highly cancerous. Dead cells may also be seen, especially toward the center of the tumor. Because these tumors come from normal brain cells, it is easy for them to invade and live within normal brain tissue. However, glioblastoma rarely spreads elsewhere in the body. Even after having surgery, a deadly type of brain cancer easily recurs. Study suggests that the brain cells may take on new identities to evade therapy and soon come back. And it does not just happen in stem cells, also in fully developed brain cells. Molecular biologist, Inder Verma and Martine Roussel, other colleagues and researchers all know how dangerous this is.
Inder Verma, who studies at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, reports online that just two changes to cancer related genes in some adult brain cells are enough to spur the genesis of glioblastomas. Glioblastoma are tumors that arise from supportive tissue of the brain. These tumors are usually highly cancerous because the cells reproduce quickly and they are supported by a large network of blood vessels. Martine Roussel, who studies at St. Jude Children’s Research in Memphis, says that this says something very scary; that with just the right combination of hits you can become a glioma, in which glioma is short for glioblastomas. Studies done by Martine Roussel in the past have said that glioblastoma can occur when genes in naturally occurring stem cells in the brain are mutated. New studies done by Roussel show that glioblastoma can arise in two or more types cells that are matured. Inder Verma’s study, on the other hand, contaminated

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