Glioblastoma is a deadly brain cancer that causes language disorder and mental disorder by destroying brain cells.
So far, treatments of glioblastoma have been limited to analysis of cancer cells. A South Korean researcher discovered mutations driving this brain cancer for the first time in the world.
Lee Joon-heum has more.
This is an image of the brain of a patient with brain cancer.
White matter shows malignant tumors in the brain.
Surgery to remove tumors and anti-cancer drugs were administered for treatment and analysis, but the disease still remains incurable.
Professor Kang Seok-gu at Severance Hospital and Professor Lee Jeong-ho at KAIST observed that glioblastoma may not be derived from cancer cells.
They found mutations from the cerebral ventricle hemisphere that only carries normal nerve cells.
Their study discovered for the first time in the world that the mutations move to spread tumors inside the brain.
<Kang Seok-gu / Neurosurgeon at Yonsei University Severance Hospital> "We expect to conquer cancer by understanding what makes cancer start based on information of these tissues and cells."
The researchers found that more than half of 30 subjects developed the cancer due to this type of mutation.
The researchers are developing treatments that prevent the mutations from spreading further.
The study findings were published in the international academic journal Nature.
Lee Joon-heum reporting for Yonhap News TV.
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