Dr. John Woulfe and his colleagues have identified a new kind of brain tumour. It was removed during a young woman’s treatment, and did not match any existing tumour classifications. The team found that the tumour expressed a never-before-seen fusion gene, made up of the MN1 gene fused to the KMT2A gene. Fusion genes can contribute to cancer by disrupting the regulation of cell growth and death, although more research is needed on this particular fusion gene. “We hope researchers and healthcare providers will keep an eye out for this kind of tumour,” said Dr. Woulfe. “The more examples we can find, the better we will be able to understand how the tumours behave and how best to treat them.” This novel fusion genes could also be a target for developing future cancer therapies.   

Authors: Suzan Chen, Brendan C Dickson, Safraz Mohammed, Kenneth Aldape, David Swanson, Josee Coulombe, Nader Zakhari, Shirin Karimi, Farshad Nassiri, Gelareh Zadeh, Yasin Mamatjan, Tao Wang,  Bryan Lo, John Woulfe

Source: Neuro-Oncology

Core resources: Molecular Oncology Diagnostics Laboratory

Research at The Ottawa Hospital is possible because of generous donations to The Ottawa Hospital Foundation. 

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