This molecular classification will be relevant to understanding brain tumors in several ways. It will facilitate the study of brain tumor causation in epidemiology studies by allowing evaluation of the importance of suspected risk factors such as diets low in antioxidants in molecularly homogenous subsets of cases. It will also enhance our ability to develop new therapies, and aid in evaluation of the efficacy of currently available treatments. We will be able to examine differences in survival among different molecularly defined subgroups of cases while controlling for other relevant factors such as age at diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of our study is to gain a better understanding of the etiology of cancer.
Cancer arises from the accumulation of multiple mutations in a cell.
This accumulation is greatly facilitated if a cell becomes abnormally susceptible to mutations in its genome. Such a cell is said to exhibit genomic instability and the acquisition of genomic instability is thought to be a key step in the development of cancer. We wish to investigate whether defects in the duplication of the genome can induce genomic instability. Such a finding would suggest a whole new way in which cells can become cancerous and ultimately may reveal new targets for the prevention, detection, and treatment of this disease. However, the exact role that NK cells play in surveillance for tumor cells and in the immune response to tumor cells is poorly understood.