삼성서울병원

- An analysis of genomic evolutionary patterns in brain tumors helps expedite personalized medicine.

- The study funded by Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare was published in Nature Genetics, a prestigious academic journal.

 

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) led by Minister Chinyoub Chung announced that a Korean research team cooperated with global research teams, expanded potential for personalized brain tumor treatment, and published the study result in a world’s renowned academic journal, Nature Genetics.

 

Funded by the Ministry’s Advanced Specialization Research Project, the study was conducted by Prof. Do-Hyun Nam et al. at SMC’s Institute for Refractory Cancer Research (IRCR) and Prof. Raul Rabadan’s team at Columbia University. This is a follow-up of a study on genomic evolutionary patterns based on brain tumor recurrence, which was featured in September 2015 on the cover of Cancer Cell.

 

To understand treatment resistance of glioblastoma after standard treatment depending on genomic evolutionary patterns, the teams analyzed genomic evolutionary patterns of primary and recurring brain tumors.

 

They observed subtype changes from 63% of patients after recurrence and hypermutation from 15%. Also, 11% of patients had mutations in LTBP4*, which was associated with worse prognosis.

 

* LTBP4 is a gene that encodes a protein binding to TGF-β to stimulate apoptosis and fibrosis.

 

As the research uncovers LTBP4 as a new target for recurrent brain tumor treatment, a new option arises for immune and targeted therapies, and personalized treatment becomes more feasible. At the same time, the team added credibility by sharing data on 114 patients from the U.S., Japan, Italy, and other countries, including 59 patients from IRCR.

 

“This is significant in that it was achieved by joint research and sharing of genomic data between Korea and the U.S. The research will considerably help introduce personalized treatment based on personal genomic data in the future,” said Prof. Nam.

 

Director Dong-wook Lee at the Division of Health Industry Policy, MOHW said that the study was a laudable achievement that expedited introduction of personalized and precision medicine for cancer and the Ministry would continue its R&D support by providing a research ecosystem to help develop original technology as in this study and developing precision medicine services for clinical application.