The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded a five-year, $4 million grant to School of Medicine researchers to use genetically engineered mice to study the origins and potential treatments of pediatric brain tumors.
David H. Gutmann, M.D., Ph.D., the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology, is principal investigator of the grant, which is part of the NCI’s Mouse Models of Human Cancers Consortium.
Research suggests that the support of nearby non-cancerous cells may be important to the formation and development of tumors. Gutmann and colleagues have provided direct proof of this idea in mouse models of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), an inherited cancer syndrome. In these models, researchers have shown that support from non-cancerous cells is required for NF1 tumor formation and development.
“We’ve come to realize that the cancer cell is only one of many cell types involved in the creation of brain tumors, and this insight has forced us to re-examine how we approach brain tumors and other cancers,” said Gutmann, director of the University’s Neurofibromatosis Center of Excellence. “If we can better understand how cancers draw support from the surrounding environment, we can look for ways to disrupt its ability to facilitate tumor formation and growth.”
Gutmann compared the challenges of understanding brain tumor development to a murder mystery.
“Like the detectives in these stories, scientists are studying a cast of characters gathered in a confined area — the regions of the brain where tumors arise,” he said.
“We want to pinpoint the murder suspects, or the cells that help cancers form, and their weapons, which are the signals these cells send that facilitate the formation of tumors,” Gutmann said.
Researchers will use the grant funding to study tumor formation in mouse models of NF1. Gutmann said NF1 provides a good model because researchers know that tumors in the mouse model arise consistently in particular locations in the brain at particular times in development.
“This should allow us to develop a much more comprehensive picture of what happens and when, which will help us determine how best to prevent or slow tumor growth,” Gutmann said.
WUSTL investigators in the project include Joshua B. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, of neurology and of neurobiology; and Joel R. Garbow, Ph.D., research associate professor of radiology.