New Genetic Markers May Diagnose Brain Cancer

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to new findings published in the journal Oncotarget, researchers at the Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, have identified new genetic markers in "junk DNA" that could diagnose brain cancer.

The team studied germline sequences from the National Institutes of Health 1000 Genomes Project and the Cancer Genome Atlas to analyze microsatellites, or "junk DNA," which make up 1 million DNA sequence repeats in the human genome.

They found that patients with different stages of glioma showed noticeable and repeated genetic markers in their genomes for brain cancer.

The next step is to make a blood test that can detect these genetic markers but also differentiate between benign and malignant brain tumors. Patients with benign or less aggressive brain tumors would not need to undergo a biopsy, which is both expensive and risky.

According to the American Brain Tumor Association, 70,000 new patients were diagnosed with primary brain cancer in 2013. Brain cancer is also the second leading cancer-related cause of death in children. Biopsies are often done to diagnose brain cancer after using an MRI for detection; however, about 1% of patients that undergo a brain biopsy die and 7% have permanent neurological damage due to the procedure.