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UVA Team Finds Genetic Key to Deadly Brain Cancer

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Three years ago, Senator John McCain was diagnosed with the most aggressive form of brain cancer – glioblastoma.  Just over a year later he died.  Today, about 200,000 Americans are dealing with the disease, and their prognosis is equally grim, but scientists at the University of Virginia have made a discovery that could lead to a cure.

Glioblastoma is hard to treat.  It grows fast, with finger-like tumor moving through the brain, and those tumors are made up of different kinds of cells – so chemotherapy may work on some but not others.

“We desperately need some new treatment and also some better understanding of the disease!” says  Dr. Hui Li, a research scientist at the University of Virginia.  His team has discovered the gene that triggers this deadly cancer 100% of the time – providing a target doctors could use to attack glioblastoma. 

Normally, Li would pass this information along to others – hoping they could find the right drug – but he and his colleagues have decided to join the hunt.

“As basic scientists we usually have to wait around for someone else to translate our basic discovery, but this discovery really excited us, so we are participating in finding potential compounds,” he explains.

Credit Hui Li
Dr. Hui Li, lead author of a study on the genetic connection to glioblastoma. It was published in Nature Communications.

Li says it will be years before a medication to disable the gene is found, tested and approved, but when that happens he predicts it will be a big improvement over current therapies which extend life by just ten weeks on average.  

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief
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