Amplification of Multiple Cell-Growth Genes Found in Some Brain Tumors, Massachusetts General Hospital Study

A small percentage of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas, which usually resist treatment with drugs targeting mutations in cell-growth genes, appears to contain extra copies of two or three of these genes at the same time. The surprising discovery by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-based research team has major implications for the understanding of tumor biology -- including the evolution of tumor cell populations -- and for targeted cancer therapies.