This blog features posts from multiple departments of the National Brain Tumor Society. From keeping you updated on the research advancements, to providing insight into our public policy advocacy efforts, we want to keep you informed of how NBTS as an organization is here for you. Questions or comments? Email questions@braintumor.org.
(Today's blog comes from David R. Hurwitz, PhD, the Richard B. Ross Chief Scientifc Officer of the National Brain Tumor Society).
"Brain tumors are just about as complex as biology gets: many types and subtypes, intricate aberrant and interacting signal transduction and biochemical pathways, evolving genomic mutations, phenotypic plasticity, cellular heterogeneity, and bidirectional interactions with the microenvironment that support tumor growth and resistance to therapies. A recent article by Jonah Lehrer in
Wired discusses the limitations and failures of reductionist research to yield effective and safe new therapies for diseases that involve even what has previously been considered very direct and straightforward biology. An example he discusses is the stunning Phase III failure of torcetrapib to reduce heart disease (it actually increased heart failure and mortality) by tweaking the cholesterol pathway in what seemed an obvious approach emphasizes that limitation. The biology was simply more complex than thought.
In light of the yet already known biological complexity involved in such brain tumors as glioblastoma, how likely does it seem that new effective therapies that inhibit individual or multiple targets will be developed without utilizing systems biology research approaches that embrace that complexity?"
Read the full article here.
