What happens when a brain tumor grows inside a human brain?

Author: Maddy Schmitt, WashU NF Center

Published On: 7/1/26

Enquan Xu and colleagues have created powerful new “mini-brain” tumor models that help answer this question in ways never possible before. The team call these PANCOs. By combining years of experience making human stem cells into tiny brain-like structures called organoids, or “mini-brains” and growing patient-derived brain tumor cells, they found the perfect conditions to make real pediatric brain tumor cells grow inside healthy mini-brains.

Some of these PANCOs mimic NF1-related tumors growing in brains of children neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), while others imitate low-grade tumors in people without NF1. This breakthrough gives researchers a rare opportunity to ask how tumors and normal brain cells physically interact and communicate.

Using these PANCOs, the team discovered something striking: brain neurons grow toward tumor cells and all around them, and when those neurons start firing, they actually help tumors grow.

Read More

Find upcoming NF Events            Donate to NF          Stay iNFormed