Path of Invasion

Glioblastoma is the most malignant and common form of brain cancer. In people with the condition, cancer cells (green) rapidly spread through the brain tissue (blue) by travelling along brain structures such as blood vessels (red). This makes it difficult to fully remove the tumours by surgery, and there are no effective treatments. Life expectancy is just over one year. “If we can target this spread, it may be possible to make therapies more effective,” says Simona Parrinello of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre (CSC). Parrinello hopes to identify what makes the cancer cells different from ‘normal’ brain cells, and how they interact with blood vessels to spread. In collaboration with Vincenzo de Paola, who leads the CSC’s Neuroplasticity and Disease group, her team use a microscope technique called intravital imaging to watch these interactions and see the cells spread through the brains of living mice in ‘real time’.

Read more about Parrinello’s research, and her recent Programme Foundation Award from Cancer Research UK worth £1.5 million for this work.

Written by Deborah Oakley

Deborah Oakley

Writer

Deborah is researching healthy cognitive ageing at the University of Cambridge. She previously worked as a science communicator in London, working closely with the BPoD team.

• Image from work by Simona Parrinello and Vincenzo De Paola
• MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, London, UK
• Image copyright held by the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre