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J Med Oncl Ther 2017 Volume 2 | Issue 3

International Conference on

Oncology and Cancer Therapeutics

October 30- November 01, 2017 | Chicago, USA

ZEB1 deletions in brain cancer

Lincoln A Edwards

Weill Cornell Medical College, USA

lioma stem cells (GSCs) drive the propagation of

glioblastomas and can affect patient survival by imparting

the virulence of unabated tumor growth through cancer stem

cell self-renewal with a resistance to GSC differentiation. How

GSCs achieve these characteristics are poorly understood.

We have identified ZEB1 as a mediator of resistance to

differentiation, and stem cell self-renewal. IFN-γ which causes

ZEB1 induction aborts these GSC characteristics. We show

that ZEB1 negatively regulates the stem cell self-renewal

factor LIF, through newly identified E-box binding sites within

the LIF promoter. Targeted suppression of ZEB1 resulted in

the induction of LIF commensurate with GSC self-renewal

and an inhibition to GSC differentiation. Interrogation of

over 500 patient glioblastomas along with primary patient

GSCs identified a significant number of glioblastoma patients

harboring a ZEB1 deletion and frequent loss of heterozygosity

(LOH). These findings are not in line with the present

literature, which suggests that ZEB1 expression increases

tumorigenicity. Surprisingly, our findings illustrate that the

loss of the ZEB1 gene is common in glioblastoma and that

ZEB1 loss is associated with propagation of the glioma stem

cell population. These findings link ZEB1 loss to stemness

with important implications for prognosis and treatment.

Speaker Biography

Lincoln A Edwards completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia, (Canada)

and his Post-doctoral studies from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer

Institute in the Department of Neuro-Oncology. He then went to the Department of

Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center serving as a Research Scientist before

moving to New York where he is currently an Instructor of Neuroscience, Neuro-

Oncology at Cornell University, Weill Cornell Medical College. He has been serving as

a review board member for the journal Frontiers of Oncology and has published in

journals like

JNCI, Cancer Cell, Scientific Reports and Molecular Cancer Therapeutics

His work has led to the initiation of clinical trials for the treatment of brain cancer.