Publications by authors named "M S Petronek"
Glioblastoma tumors are the most common and aggressive adult central nervous system malignancy. Nearly all patients experience disease progression, which significantly contributes to disease mortality. Recently, it has been suggested that recurrent tumors may be characterized by a ferroptosis-prone phenotype with a significant decrease in glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4) expression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Chordomas are rare, slow growing, locally aggressive malignant bone tumors that arise from remnants of the embryonic notochord with variable presenting symptoms depending on tumor location.
Methods: All patients with craniospinal chordoma managed at our institution between 1982 and 2023 were retrospectively reviewed. Demographics, tumor characteristics, clinical course and treatment, and long-term neurological and survival outcomes were collected.
Article Synopsis
- Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain cancer with very low survival rates, and laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) has emerged as a promising surgical option to reduce tumor burden and modulate immune responses.
- The study investigated how thermal therapy and radiation affect the immune checkpoint PD-L1 in U87 GBM cells, particularly focusing on the differences between IDH-mutant and IDH-wildtype cells.
- Results indicated that thermal therapy effectively killed GBM cells in a temperature-dependent manner, especially at higher temperatures, and notably reduced PD-L1 levels in U87 cells, which correlated with increased expression of a specific mitochondrial enzyme linked to iron metabolism.
Enriched iron metabolic features such as high transferrin receptor (TfR) expression and high iron content are commonly observed in aggressive gliomas and can be associated with poor clinical responses. However, the underlying question of how iron contributes to tumor aggression remains elusive. Gliomas harboring isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutations account for a high percentage (>70 %) of recurrent tumors and cells with an acquired IDH mutation have been reported to have increased motility and invasion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Gallium therapy is being looked at again as a way to treat glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor.
- It works by acting like iron in the body, messing with important enzymes related to iron, which can cause problems for the tumor cells.
- New findings show that gallium can reduce iron in the mitochondria (energy factories in cells), harm DNA, and make some tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy, possibly helping to fight the cancer better.