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Studies have demonstrated that not only do common genetic variants increase risk of developing glioma, but some genetic variants may also influence an individual´s response to brain cancer therapies.

The deCODEme Genetic Scan identifies genetic variants known to increase risk for developing glioma.

Glioma brain cancers in the news

Senator Edward M. Kennedy died in 2009 of a glioma-type brain cancer

Many people may have first heard about gliomas in the news of U.S. Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy´s (D-MA) illness. After suffering a seizure in May, 2008, the senator was diagnosed with a malignant left parietal lobe glioma. A month later, Senator Kennedy underwent what was described as a successful surgery and then received both chemotherapy and radiation.

This course of treatment, surgery followed by both radiation and chemotherapy, was described in the news as the current standard in brain cancer therapy in material released at the time by the American Academy of Neurology. Six months after surgery, Senator Kennedy had returned to the Capitol and was working part-time while still continuing with treatment.

The senator died on August 25, 2009 at age 77, only 15 months after his initial diagnosis, however extending the average survival rate for people diagnosed with malignant gliomas which ranges between 6 and 13 months.

Find out more about Senator Kennedy and his battle with glioma, here.

Genetic variants may influence an individual´s response to cancer therapies

Recent studies have demonstrated that common genetic variants may influence an individual´s response to cancer therapies or otherwise influence prognosis and survival after a diagnosis of glioma. As these findings have not in all cases been replicated and confirmed, cautious interpretation is advised. At the very least, these studies have provided several potentially fruitful areas of further research.

For more information about ongoing clinical trials of adult brain tumors, see here.

A personal story of life after a brain tumor

At 40, Gary Kornfeld, a busy lawyer, was diagnosed with malignant brain cancer. Eleven years later he had recovered and found a new calling in life. Read more in this WebMD article.

more information

For more information about brain cancer, we recommend talking to your doctor and visiting these websites:

• What you need to know about brain tumors – The National Cancer Institute
• The National Brain Tumor Foundation´s Essential Guide to Brain Tumors
• Types of brain tumors – National Brain Tumor Society
• National institute of neurological disorders and stroke on brain tumors
• About brain cancer from MedlinePlus – Trusted health information for you
• Recent news about brain cancer from the National Library of Medicine
• National Cancer Institute – Summaries of Newsworthy Clinical Trial Results
• “Gene Connections Key to Brain Tumor Growth – Discovery could help change disease from fatal to chronic”, researcher says in recent article.

scientific references

1. Neglia JP, Robison LL, Stovall M, Liu Y, Packer RJ, Hammond S, Yasui Y, Kasper CE, Mertens AC, Donaldson SS, Meadows AT, Inskip PD. New primary neoplasms of the central nervous system in survivors of childhood cancer: a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2006 Nov 1;98(21):1528-37.
2. Shete S, Hosking FJ, Robertson LB, Dobbins SE, Sanson M, Malmer B, Simon M, Marie Y, Boisselier B, Delattre JY, Hoang-Xuan K, El Hallani S, Idbaih A, Zelenika D, Andersson U, Henriksson R, Bergenheim AT, Feychting M, Lönn S, Ahlbom A, Schramm J, Linnebank M, Hemminki K, Kumar R, Hepworth SJ, Price A, Armstrong G, Liu Y, Gu X, Yu R, Lau C, Schoemaker M, Muir K, Swerdlow A, Lathrop M, Bondy M, Houlston RS. Genome-wide association study identifies five susceptibility loci for glioma. Nature Genetics. 2009 Aug;41(8):899-904. Epub 2009 Jul 5.

This content was last reviewed on February 09, 2010.

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