The Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

The Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek has a research group fully dedicated to studying brain tumors. Researchers at Antoni van Leeuwenhoek find a new target against brain tumors.
Amsterdam, May 14, 2013 – Gliomas account for about sixty percent of all malignant brain tumors and remain very difficult to treat. Thanks to a new combination of techniques, several important genes have come to light that were previously not known to be involved in cancer but for which suitable medication exists. A group of researchers led by Maarten van Lohuizen of the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is publishing these findings this week in the leading journal, Cancer Cell.
Glioma is the most common (malignant) brain tumor. There is still no effective treatment for gliomas. And for the available medications, tumor cells often quickly become resistant. This is partly due to stem cells rapidly moving through the brain. Therefore, it is crucial to find new targets for potential treatments.
One such target appears to be the gene Atf3. When this gene is absent, as Van Lohuizen and his group found, the brain tumors seem more active and grow faster. Using chemical techniques, it is possible in mouse models to reactivate this gene, thereby inhibiting the tumor.
A combination therapy of this so-called Atf3 inhibitor along with existing treatments will soon be tested preclinically at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, the research institute of the Amsterdam-based Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.