Gene screen predicts brain tumour prognosis:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
A team of researchers in Massachusetts, US, has developed a classification system of gene expression profiles that could help predict the clinical outcome of the most common type of childhood malignant brain tumour. Diagnosis of the condition, called medulloblastoma, on the basis of morphologic appearance alone is controversial and patient response to therapy is difficult to predict, according to a report published in Nature (January 24). The new DNA microarray gene expression-based system is highly predictive of outcome at the time of tumour diagnosis and may also shed light on why the tumours occur, said the team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, based in Cambridge.