Abstract B38: Quiescence as a marker of treatment resistance and malignancy in GBM

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a World Health Organization grade IV astrocytic tumor, and is the most common primary brain malignancy. GBM is characterized as being highly malignant and rapidly progressive with a high mitotic index, diffuse invasion, microvascular proliferation and pseudopalisading necrosis. Current best treatment for GBM involves maximal safe surgical resection, with radiotherapy (XRT) and temozolomide (TMZ), but even with this regime patients survive for an average of only ~15 months. GBM’s position within the brain and diffuse progression profile prevents a surgical cure, and the cells left behind following surgery contain a quiescent, treatment-resistant subpopulation of cells with a stem-like capacity for self-renewal which survive chemoradiotherapy and cause relapse. These resistant cells have been referred to as cancer stem cells, but while stem cell markers have been useful in enriching stem populations in some cancers, a marker that reliably defines the glioma stem cell has remained elusive. The critical feature that allows these resistant cells to survive treatment is their slow division rate, which helps them to avoid chemoradiotherapy-induced cell death by virtue of their condensed chromatin and reduced requirement for DNA replication. In the present study we use a pulse-chase assay to ubiquitously label glioma cell lines with the fluorescent dye Oregon Green and observe the label dilution as an indicator of cell division. Based on their s...
Source: Molecular Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Other Topics: Poster Presentations - Proffered Abstracts Source Type: research