Medical updates: A brain tumor is a mass of cells that have grown abnormally in or around your brain. Spinal tumors and brain tumors are referred to together as central nervous system (CNS) tumors.
Brain tumors can be malignant (cancerous) or benign (noncancerous). Some tumors develop rapidly, while others grow slowly. Only roughly one-third of all brain tumors are malignant. Brain tumors, whether malignant or not, can impair brain function and health if they grow large enough to impinge on surrounding nerves, blood vessels, and tissue.
In the United States this year, an estimated 25,050 adults (14,170 men and 10,880 women) will be diagnosed with primary malignant tumors of the brain and spinal cord. A person’s lifetime risk of having this form of tumor is less than 1%. Brain tumors account for 85% to 90% of all primary CNS tumors. In 2020, an estimated 308,102 persons will be diagnosed with a primary brain or spinal cord tumor worldwide.
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Nagoya University researchers in Japan employed a novel gadget to identify a key membrane protein in the urine that determines if a patient has a brain tumor. Their protein could be used to identify brain cancer, eliminating invasive tests and improving the probability of tumor detection early enough for treatment. This research may potentially have implications for detecting other forms of cancer.
Although early detection has contributed to recent gains in cancer survival rates, the survival rate for brain tumors has stayed nearly stable for more than 20 years. This is partly attributable to their late discovery. Brain tumors are frequently discovered only after the start of neurological symptoms such as loss of movement or speech, by which time the tumor has grown to a significant size. Detecting the tumor early and initiating therapy as soon as possible should help save lives.
The presence of tumor-related extracellular vesicles (EVs) in a person’s urine is one possible sign that they have a brain tumor. EVs are nanoparticles that perform a variety of tasks, including cell-to-cell communication. Because they include certain forms of RNA and membrane proteins found in brain cancer patients, they might be utilized to detect the existence of cancer and its progression.
Although excreted far from the brain, many EVs from cancer cells remain indefinitely and are expelled in urine without being broken down. Urine testing provides several advantages, according to Nagoya University Graduate School of Engineering Associate Professor Takao Yasui. “Liquid biopsy can be performed using a variety of bodily fluids, but blood tests are invasive,” he said. “Urine tests are an effective, simple, and non-invasive method because the urine contains many informative biomolecules that can be traced back to identify the disease.”
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In collaboration with Nagoya University’s Institute of Innovation for Future Society and the University of Tokyo, a research team led by Yasui and Professor Yoshinobu Baba of Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Engineering developed a new analysis platform for brain tumour EVs using nanowires at the bottom of a well plate. They used this technique to identify two types of EV membrane proteins called CD31/CD63 in urine samples from brain tumor patients. Doctors may be able to detect tumor patients before they show symptoms if they look for these tell-tale proteins.
“Currently, EV isolation and detection methods require more than two instruments and an assay to isolate and then detect EVs,” said Yasui. “The all-in-one nanowire assay can isolate and detect EVs using one simple procedure. In the future, users can run samples through our assay and change the detection part, by selectively modifying it to detect specific membrane proteins or miRNAs inside EVs to detect other types of cancer. Using this platform, we expect to advance the analysis of the expression levels of specific membrane proteins in patients’ urinary EVs, which will enable the early detection of different types of cancer.”
