Glioma (green) in mouse brain. Image by Eric Bushong.The prevailing view that stem cells are the principle originators of brain cancer may be incorrect, according to a report out today (October 18) in Science. The new study suggests that terminally differentiated brain cells, including neurons, can be reprogrammed by oncogenic factors to become progenitor-like cells that then develop into brain tumors, or gliomas.
“What’s provocative about these experiments is that they challenge the notion that only stem cells can give rise to cancers of the brain,” said David Gutmann, a professor of neurology at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, who did not participate in the study. “While we were all very excited 10 years ago when the cancer stem cell hypothesis came out, I think it was perhaps wishful thinking for us to believe that that was the only path to cancer.” The researchers were “able to demonstrate that you can get gliomas from these terminally differentiated neurons,” agreed Ronald DePinho, president of the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, Houston. “[The finding] is very exciting and basically teaches us that cells maintain an ...
