Glioblastoma is a type of brain cancer that’s very difficult to treat. Current treatments – surgery to remove the tumour, chemotherapy, and radiation – help but don’t cure the disease. We’re exploring a new approach that could lead to better treatments.
Instead of just targeting the cancer cells directly, we’re studying the brain’s natural cleanup process: special cells called phagocytes that act like sweepers, removing dead tumour cells and keeping brain tissue clean. In our earlier research with mice, we found these cleanup cells produce a protein called Galectin 3 that can control how nearby cells grow.
Now we want to see if the same thing happens in humans with glioblastoma. We’ll study patients who need repeat surgery after their initial treatment to compare their Galectin 3 levels before and after chemotherapy and radiation.
If we find that Galectin 3 plays an important role in human glioblastoma, we can start developing new drugs that work with this protein. This could open up an entirely new way to fight brain cancer – by boosting the power of the brain’s own cleanup system rather than relying only on treatments that directly kill tumour cells.