The gene p53 acts as a tumor suppressor and often is called the ‘guardian of the genome.’ This gene is central to maintaining genomic stability, which prevents mutations from accumulating and leading to cancer. But when p53 mutates, it can flip from protector to promoter of cancer.
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and collaborating institutions revealed in Nature Cell Biology a strategy that helps medulloblastoma, the most prevalent malignant brain tumor in children, spread and grow on the leptomeninges, the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
