The most common type of malignant brain tumour glioblastoma multiforme or GBM is highly aggressive and incurable – fewer than 5% of sufferers survive three years. This study in mice discovers that damage to nerve fibres (axons) in the brain's white matter – which facilitates communication between different brain regions – by early GBM cells drives progression and spread of the tumour. Targeting the tumour-induced injury may be exploitable as a therapeutic strategy
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