A new gene that increases the response to chemotherapy in medulloblastoma

An international team led by the Department of Neurosurgery at Niigata University has found that the expression of Schlafen11 (SLFN11) is strongly associated with chemotherapy response in medulloblastoma, a highly malignant brain tumor
that affects children, adolescents and young adults.

The team led by Dr.
Manabu Natsumeda first noticed that SLFN11 is highly expressed in almost all cases of wnt-activated medulloblastoma and is the molecular subset
with the best prognosis.
Further research using the medulloblastoma cell line showed that genetic manipulation of SLFN11 led to a dramatic change
in response to cisplatin, a key drug used to treat this deadly tumor.

"Some medulloblastomas respond better to treatment than others, but we don't know why
.
We can now better predict which cases will respond to
chemotherapy.
We even found that by using a different drug called HDAC inhibitors, we could increase SLFN11 to make tumors more sensitive
to cisplatin.
The findings were published on the website of the journal Neuro-Oncology on October 23, 2022
.