February 2012: Researchers make living model of brain tumor
Brown University scientists have created the first three-dimensional living tissue model, complete with surrounding blood vessels, to analyze the effectiveness of therapeutics to combat brain tumors. The 3-D model gives medical researchers more and better information than Petri dish tissue cultures. Read the story in Science Codex.

February 2012: Study sheds light on why therapy for devastating brain cancer in kids often fails
When a devastating form of brain cancer in kids spreads — and it too often does — treatments are life-changing and often ineffective. A new study is shedding light on why. The work, led by a scientist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, has found that in medulloblastoma...     Read the Global story.

 January 2012: Scientists identify genes that cause of some brain tumours in children
team of Montreal scientists has pinpointed the genetic causes behind some of the deadliest brain tumours in children, raising hopes of a “tailored” therapy that might one day save lives and spare patients horrendous side effects. Read the Montreal Gazette story.

January 2012: Mutations Tied To Aggressive Childhood Brain Tumours Revealed By Cancer Sequencing Initiative
Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumour of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumours have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique role in other aggressive pediatric brain tumours as well. Read more here.

January 2012: Treatments Tailored to Tumours
A new research project aims to tailor treatment more effectively for pediatric brain tumour research. The project builds on studies showing that some children with low-risk brain tumours are over-treated, the goal will be to better match up treatments and tumours. Read more about this exciting project here.

January 2012: Patient Care Could Be Revolutionized By Diagnostic Brain Tumour Test
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed what they believe to be the first clinical application of a new imaging technique to diagnose brain tumuors. The unique test could preclude the need for surgery in patients whose tumours are located in areas of the brain too dangerous to biopsy. Read more here.

January 2012: Recurrent Mutations in H3F3A in Some Pediatric Brain Tumour Cases
Two new studies identify the same recurrent mutations in H3F3A in pediatric cases of glioblastoma multiforme and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. These are the first reports of human disease associated with mutations in histones, which play an extraordinarily important and conserved role in chromatin structure and gene regulation. Read more on Nature.com.

January 2012: Team finds new way to image brain tumors, predict recurrence
team from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has developed methods to reveal a molecular marker in tissue samples from brain tumors that has been linked to better survival odds. Monitoring this marker in the brain could provide doctors with a better way to follow their patients after surgery. Read more ...

January 2012: Brain Tumours Sensitized To Chemotherapy By Selectively Stopping Glutathione
Brain cancer cells are particularly resistant to chemotherapy - toxins enter the cells, but before the toxins can kill, cancer cells quickly pump them back outside. In fact, brain cancer cells are even better than healthy cells at cleaning themselves. Read more ...

January 2012: Therapy can add years to certain brain tumor patients' lives
The growing science of personalized medicine has good news for a select group of brain tumor patients: Combination therapy can double their survival, to nearly 15 years. Read the story in USA Today...

January 2012: Using Weather Forcasting to Predict Brain Tumour Growth
Arizona State University researchers believe their research in improving weather forecasting could be applied to brain cancer. Their proof-of-concept study, published by Biology Direct, shows they might be correct. Read more...

January 2012: Genome Sequencing of Pediatric Medulloblastoma Links Catastrophic DNA Rearrangements with TP53 Mutations
German scientists have discovered the first whole genome sequence of a medulloblastoma, apaediatric tumour. Read the article is the journal Cell and the article in Medical News.

January 2012: Agent Shows Ability to Suppress Brain Metastases and Related Damage
Scientists are one step closer to figuring out and repairing the damage caused by brain metastases. This area has been a challenging one for neuro-oncologists and researchers, and understanding the mechanisms and effects of brain metastases can help manage both patient care and treatment. Read more ...

December 2011: Familial brain tumours
While inherited susceptibility might play a part in glioma the international Gliogene study (involving centres in the USA, UK, Sweden, Denmark and Israel), led by Dr Melissa Bondy, analysed the genetic makeup of 75 families where two or more members had glioma and identified a particular region on chromosome 17 called 17q12-21.3 as worthy of further study and sequencing. In the course of its study the group identified 1,000 families worldwide who are in the unfortunate category of having two or more members with glioma. Read more...

December 2011: Summary Report on the Graded Prognostic Assessment: An Accurate and Facile Diagnosis-Specific Tool to Estimate Survival for Patients with Brain Metastases
The Graded Prognostic Assessment (GPA) is a prognostic index for patients with brain metastases. A database of over 3900 people with newly diagnosed brain metastases underwent analyses of prognostic factors association with outcomes by primary site and treatment. Read more in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

December 2011: Improved Treatments for Brain Cancers Highlighted at Annual Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Meeting
1400 neuro-oncologist and other cancer health care professionals gathered recently at the annual Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Meeting to learn about advances made in the past year. Many of the most promising approaches were in the areas of immunotherapy and vaccines. Read more...

November, 2011: Mechanism Discovered In Brain Cancer Responsible For Neuron Death
Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine have discovered a mechanism by which glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common form of brain cancer, promotes the loss of function or death of neurons, a process known as neurodegeneration. Read more ...

October, 2011: Distinguishing Oligodendrogliomas From Other Cancers
This article in the Journal of Pathology looks at the unique clinical, pathological, and genetic features of Oligodendroglioma including recurrent losses of chromosomes 1p and 19q.

September, 2011: Use of mobile phones and risk of brain tumours: update of Danish cohort study
The debate continues with the publication and open access availability in the British Medical Journal of an update of the Danish cohort study which provides “little evidence for a causal association”. Read more ...

September, 2011: First medication for children with brain tumours approved in Canada
Health Canada recently gave conditional approval of a new therapeutic use for the drug Afinitor* (everolimus). It is the first drug therapy approved in Canada for the treatment of brain tumours caused by TSC in patients three years of age and older. Read the media release here.

August, 2011: Researchers Identify Possible Meningioma Gene
Swedish researchers have identified a gene variant, related to the MLLT10 on chromosome 10 associated with hematologic (blood) tumours, that may increase the likelihood that a person will develop a meningioma brain tumour. Read more...

August, 2011: GBM and Two Cancers Share Genetic Link
In a recent study, 20% of brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme), skin cancer (malignant melanoma), and bone cancer (Ewings sarcoma) samples were found to have no STAG2 protein, often due to a missing or mutated STAG2 gene. Read more ...

August, 2011: Mutations on Choromosomes 1 and 19 Key to Oligodendroglioma
Researchers have discovered the primary genetic mutations that lead to oligodendrogliomas, the second-most-common brain tumour type in adults. In a recent study, scientists were able to sequence the exomes, or protein-coding portions of DNA, in seven oligodendroglioma tumours, and found that two genes, CIC and FUBP1, were frequently mutated. Further research on 27 additional oligodendroglioma samples confirmed the findings. The discovery adds to the scientific understanding of the genes involved in the growth of this tumour. Read more...

August, 2011: Brain Tumour Research Reaches Next Set of Milestones
The Dr. Peter Dirks laboratory is now testing a number of drugs that showed effectiveness on blocking human brain tumour stem cell growth in culture for their ability to block human tumour growth in animal models, which is the key stepping stone to move a drug to trials for human patients. Read the media release about this research here.

July, 2011: Hyperbaric Oxygen Tested For Aggressive Brain Cancer
In a unique study, researchers at The Long Island Brain Tumor Center at Neurological Surgery, P.C. are examining whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy breathing pure oxygen while in a pressurized chamber may prove a useful addition to the current standard of care for patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. Read more ...

July, 2011: Two clinical Trials at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
The Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation has announced it is funding two new clinical trials at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. The studies will evaluate the feasibility and safety of MR-guided focused ultrasound as a treatment for essential tremor and malignant brain tumors. Read about the studies and how to become involved here.

July, 2011: Conference Goes Beyond the Numbers
Thomas Hillen, a professor of mathematics at the University of Alberta, will speak about cancer detection at the conference. His research team is using geometry to map brain tumours. Read the story here.

July, 2011: Just Add Water And ... Treat Brain Cancer
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have developed a technique that delivers gene therapy into human brain cancer cells using nanoparticles that can be freeze-dried and stored for up to three months prior to use. Read more here.

July, 2011: Understanding Glioblastoma at the Genetic, Molecular Level
Glioblastoma is the most common and most lethal form of brain tumor. Research published in the International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design offers a novel way to determine what biological functions go awry when the tumor first begins to form. Read the story in Medical News Today.

July, 2011: Magnetic Nanoparticles Fry Tumors
Any parent fretting over a child's fever knows that temperatures just a few degrees above normal can kill. But cancer researchers have now found a way to make high temperatures heal. In a new study, a team found that injecting mice with tiny magnets and cranking up the heat eliminated tumors from the animals' bodies with no apparent side effects. Read more about this here.

June, 2011: New imaging technique helps detect brain tumours earlier
Brain tumours are often very difficult for doctors to find. Current imaging techniques that find other types of cancer without difficulty still often can’t easily find brain tumours. That means many patients are diagnosed with brain cancer too late for successful treatment. A team of Ontario researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto hopes to change this. Read more here.

April, 2011: Brain Tumor Vaccine Shows Promise in Early Trials
A vaccine that jumpstarts the immune system is showing promise in keeping a deadly type of cancerous brain tumor at bay. Read more here.

April, 2011: Groundbreaking Surgery Removes Brain Tumour
In a Canadian first, a Quebec neurosurgeon recently managed to completely remove a brain tumour from a patient using a robotic arm and 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The groundbreaking surgery was performed last fall by Dr. David Fortin at Sherbrooke's University Hospital (CHUS). Read more in the Montreal Gazette.

March, 2011: Gene fusion mechanisms offer new clues to origin of paediatric brain tumours
A detailed analysis of gene fusions present at high frequency in the most common paediatric brain tumours has been performed for the first time in a study published recently, shedding new light on how these genomic rearrangements form in the early stages of cancer. Read the story in Science Centric.

March, 2011: Made-in-Canada Technology: Virtual brain surgery centre launched in Toronto
A new virtual reality brain surgery training centre that will benefit Canadians undergoing brain surgery has opened at the Toronto Western Hospital. Read the news release on the National Research Council of Canada website.

January, 2011: Brain Cancer: A Ray of Hope
A recent article by Dr. Richard Beliveau outlines the encouraging results or recent studies about a drug that may be effective against primary and secondary brain tumours. Read his article in the Toronto Sun.

January, 2011: Some Brain Tumors Mimic The Genetic Program Of Germline Cells
Scientists at IRB Barcelona have discovered that some brain tumours in larvae of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster use the genetic programme of germline cells to grow. The removal of some of these genes leads to healthy brains. Read the story in Medical News Today.

January, 2011: Researchers Pinpoint Origin Of Deadly Brain Tumor - Oligodendrogliomas
Scientists have identified the type of cell that is at the origin of brain tumors known as oligodendrogliomas, which are a type of glioma - a category that defines the most common type of malignant brain tumor. Read the story in Medical News Today.

January, 2011: Gene Deletion Linked to Glioblastoma
New research found that up to one in four glioblastoma patients have a deleted gene which may contribute to tumor development, promote resistance to therapy, and considerably worsen a patient's outcome. The gene, known as NFKBIA, triggers biochemical processes similar to those resulting from a better-known aberration in epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, also commonly found in glioblastoma. That both defects produce the same outcome may help explain why efforts to treat the disease by targeting only one aberration have faltered. Learn more in the New England Journal of Medicine.