Cancerous cells in an aggressive type of childhood brain tumour work together to infiltrate the brain, British researchers report today.
The team behind the research now hope that this finding could lead to new treatments for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), which is characterised by the tumour sending cancer cells from the brain stem to the rest of the brain.
Almost all patients with this type of cancer die within two years.
The researchers, who were led by a team at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, used donations of biopsy tissue and the brains of children who died from DIPG and found that DIPGs are heterogenous.
This enables the cells to ‘work’ together to leave the original tumour and travel into the brain, they write in Nature Medicine, which has published the findings.
The study also reveals that even a small number of cells in DIPG can exert a huge influence, by leading cells from the main tumour into the rest of the brain to stimulate tumour growth and spread.
One cell type, found in small numbers, left the original DIPG tumour site and migrated into the rest of the brain early in the evolution of the disease, the researchers report. As it migrated, the cells released a chemical messenger called CXCL2, which calls other cells from the tumour to follow it.
Lead researcher Professor Chris Jones, of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: “This is the first time we’ve observed this sort of interaction between different tumour cells in DIPG. The idea that the cells are working together to make the disease grow and become aggressive is new and surprising. Childhood cancers were thought to be very simple but this shows us that isn’t always the case. Crucially, this gives us hope that we can develop new treatments.”
Professor Richard Gilbertson, director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre at the University of Cambridge, said: “This research begins to unravel the complex community of cells that make up DIPG. Through an elegant combination of molecular and cell biology techniques, this study provides a window into the heart of these tumours, allowing us to begin to decipher how their different cell populations interact with each other to promote the disease.”
Researchers now want to look for treatments that target the most important subpopulations of cells in the tumour and/or interfere with the cooperation between cells.
Jones C et al. Functional diversity and cooperativity between subclonal populations of pediatric glioblastoma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma cells. Nature Medicine 2 July 2018.
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