Überlebende von Hirntumoren fordern ein Umdenken in der Krebsbehandlung

*Jason Gale for Bloomberg News*

Glioblastoma has traditionally been treated as a mass of malignant cells to be cut out, blasted with radiation or poisoned with chemotherapy. Over the past decade Michelle Monje of Stanford University’s School of Medicine and Frank Winkler of Heidelberg University Hospital have uncovered evidence that glioblastoma cells don’t just sit in the brain — they connect to it, forming direct links with nearby neurons and tapping into electrical and chemical signals that help the tumor grow, spread and evade immune defenses.

“It’s really insidious, but this is what we have to disrupt,” says Monje, a professor of pediatric neuro-oncology. “We have to take away the cancer’s ability to be stimulated by the electrical activity of the nervous system.”

Winkler’s team in Germany observed the same behavior, and when he and Monje compared notes, they realized they had independently discovered the same phenomenon: tumors that “think.” “It’s as if a new brain forms inside the existing one,” says Winkler, who has watched tumor cells connect through hair-thin tubes that pass signals between them. “This new brain is capable of really dramatic things — something that you can even call ‘intelligence.’”

[Read the full story here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-27/the-science-of-cancer-care-is-being-changed-by-brain-tumor-survivors?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3MjIxNTg4NCwiZXhwIjoxNzcyODIwNjg0LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUQjNFUzVLSUpIOFQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.zp1UnNpThW0guQUO03jNNlqYLq5ECC3ZhRvUyU5fmV4)