A new body of research, claimed to be the largest-ever study of brain cancer, revealed possible reasons for inherited risk of the disease.

The research, published in the journal Nature Genetics, identified 13 new genetic errors associated with glioma, the most common form of brain cancer. Glioma is a general term to describe any tumor that started on the “gluey” tissue, called gila, of the brain, the American Brain Tumor Association explains.

Read: Brain Tumor Gene Found, Linking Familial Glioma Between Family Members

The study, which included more than 30,000 people with and without glioma, was designed to identify DNA changes, passed on to the participants from their parents, that increased their risk of disease, according to a news release on ScienceDaily.

The 13 new genetic changes identified affect many different cell functions including nerve cell division, DNA repair, cell cycle control, protein production and inflammation. Currently, there are only 13 other genetic changes associated with risk of glioma.

“Understanding the genetics of glioma in such detail allows us to start thinking about ways of identifying people at high inherited risk, and will open up a search for new treatments that exploit our new knowledge of the biology of the disease,” Paul Workman, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said in a press release.

The study was conducted by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, in collaboration with scientists in Europe and the United States.

Gliomas account for 80 percent of malignant (or cancerous) brain tumors among American adults. The average survival rate for all malignant brain tumor patients is 34.4 percent, according to the National Brain Tumor Society.

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