Glioblastoma is a malignant brain tumor aggressive which leaves little chance to the patients, who survive on average 14 months after the diagnosis. The symptoms do not appear until late. But a discovery made by researchers at the University of Ohio (United States) could detect glioblastoma five years earlier than today.
“We have identified an interaction between two proteins and the tumor, which is present long before the diagnosis of glioma” explains Dr Judith Schwartzbaum, lead author of the study and professor of epidemiology.
To do this, the researchers analyzed the proteins of blood samples from 487 people diagnosed with glioma (including 315 glioblastomas) and 487 people without brain tumors. They discovered that certain proteins (cytokines) in the immune system of sick people sent fewer signals than those of healthy people, five years before a brain tumor was diagnosed.
“We believe it is because the tumor has already started to suppress the activation of the immune response.”
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