Ground-breaking drug to fight 'usually fatal' type of brain tumour created at Barcelona hospital
Wednesday, August 20, 2014 @ 7:43 PM
SCIENTISTS at a Barcelona hospital have created a drug which is capable of killing off a lethal form of brain tumour and stopping it from spreading.
Led by Dr Laura Soucek, the team at the Vall d'Hebron hospital have been working on an inhibitor which blocks the protein Myc, responsible for the growth, division and multiplication of cells which form the glioma, one of the most common forms of brain tumour and the most difficult to treat.
The prognosis for sufferers of glioma is generally poor, with treatment being ineffective and a cure very rare.
But by blocking the Myc protein, the tumour is attacked once it has already formed, as are the 'master' cells, preventing them from 'breeding', or multiplying and spreading out.
Following the first and very promising results from their initial investigations, the research team is now seeking to extend the therapy to clinical trials.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com