Researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience of the Autonomous University of Barcelona have just implemented a new 3D biopsy method of glioblastoma, the most common brain tumor. This could make it possible to determine the diagnosis or even to open up new treatments.
Glioblastoma is the most common form of brain tumor in humans. This form of tumor is thought to affect one in 100,000 people and the number of cases increases to 1 in 33,330 each year. Glioblastomas can affect all age groups even if 70% of cases are between 45 and 70 years old. According to the Swiss medical journal “the prognosis of patients with glioblastoma remains bleak with a median life expectancy of 15 to 17 months with a 5% survival rate at five years”. Usually, this tumor form develops in the right or left hemisphere of the brain although it is possible for glioblastoma to develop in other places of the cerebral cortex. To diagnose it, doctors will first order a battery of neurological examinations to determine its location, through a cranial scanner and also Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). It is through a new method of analyzing 3D images and quantitative data that neuroscientists believe that it would be possible to better understand the tumor.
An analysis method that paves the way for better diagnosis and treatment
“We provide a set of images and data using a procedure that allows visualization of the cellular composition of the microenvironments of human tumors” can we read in the study published in the journal Acta Neuropathology. With this new method of 3D analysis, the images will facilitate the understanding of glioblastoma. “It provides more complete information than the 2D analyzes usually performed for neuropathology diagnosis”, explains Georges Paul Cribaro, one of the study’s authors. With this 3D approach, the results of the researchers’ work show the alterations in the blood vessels of tumors and the probable abnormalities of the vascular wall that can hinder the entry of T-lymphocytes. It is the latter which are responsible for the so-called cellular immunity because they have the capacity to destroy infected cells.
The causes of glioblastoma will be less uncertain
With this 3D vision, it would be possible to split the tumor into two zones. On the one hand the tumor tissue and on the other hand the stromal, which supports the tumor, in which there are different immunological microenvironments. “The immune cells … are visible in both areas, but they are shaped by different subpopulations. This local and population differentiation could be an important factor that could aid in the diagnosis and in the search for new therapeutic targets” explains Carlos Barcia, work coordinator. It is also possible that this tumor develops without a known and identified cause. However, this type of tumor may result from irradiation of the brain.
