This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Researchers at Texas Children's Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI), Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions report in Nature Cancer that stroke promotes glioma growth. They also identified cellular and molecular mediators involved in the process, linking brain injury to malignant brain tumors.

"Epidemiological and clinical studies suggest that patients with a history of stroke or traumatic brain injury are at increased risk of developing brain tumors. The risk can be about threefold to sevenfold, depending on the age and sex of the patient," said corresponding author Dr. Hyun Kyoung Lee, principal investigator at the Duncan NRI. Lee is also an associate professor of pediatrics and neurology and a member of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor.

"Despite these clinical observations, the mechanism that connects brain injury and cancer remains unclear. In the current study, we worked with human and mouse models to investigate whether stroke promotes glioma growth and the factors mediating the connection," Lee said.

The study's first authors, Dr. Qi Ye and graduate student Christine Madamba of Lee's lab, focused on stroke as one type of brain injury and glioma as a specific type of brain tumor. Glioma is the most prevalent and aggressive malignant brain tumor in adults. The researchers also considered its five-year survival rate.

"We show that stroke promoted tumor infiltration into injured brain regions in human and mouse glioma models, and reduced overall survival," Lee said.

Source link