Researchers at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center have found new clues to the formation of tumors in a deadly kind of brain cancer.

The discovery could help researchers create new, tightly focused therapies to reduce the death rate from the cancer, called glioblastoma, the university said in a news release Monday.

“New treatment options for brain cancer patients are desperately needed,” said Joe W. Ramos, UH Cancer Center deputy director and lead researcher on the study. “Treatment options include chemotherapy in combination with radiation, but they only prolong a patient’s life by a few months.”

Glioblastoma has only a 14-month average survival rate after initial diagnosis.

The study, published in the journal Oncotarget, reveals that a protein called RSK2 is increased in many patients with glioblastoma. The protein pushes glioblastoma cells into surrounding healthy brain tissue.

The invasion of these cells throughout the brain makes it difficult to remove the tumor by surgery, which contributes to high recurrence and poor survival rates, the researchers said. They found that inhibiting RSK2 stops invasion of the tumor cells and enhances the effectiveness of standard chemotherapy.

MAUI

New community to feature mix of rental units and homes

WAILUKU >> The developer of a proposed 304-acre housing community says the first phase of the project will include the first apartment complex for West Maui in more than two decades.

“This is a major undertaking, as you all know,” said USA Infrastructure Investments LP CEO Paul Cheng. “No one has even tried this for 20 years.”

Cheng said Thursday that he hopes to begin work on the project by the end of 2017 or sooner, the Maui News reported.

“When I talked to the county, they said, ‘Look, you can do for-sale affordable (housing), but we really prefer rental because the affordable housing quickly changes after seven to 10 years to market-rate housing,’” he said.

The project is estimated to cost $300 million to $500 million and will include 882 multifamily and single-family homes with at least half designated as affordable.

The first phase of construction will begin with 250 long-term rental units, with 130 earmarked as workforce housing.

“By having rentals, they’ll be able to use it as a bridge to homeownership,” Cheng said. “They get in there, they get married, they save some money and when they’re ready financially they can go buy an affordable unit for sale, which may be in the later phases for us.”

Cheng said the first phase is expected to cost about $75 million and take 18 months to build, but units could be available for rent within 14 months.

He added that studios could go for as little as $1,000 a month, a one-bedroom unit for about $1,200 to $1,500 and two-bedroom units for around $2,000 a month.

Market-rate rentals will be slightly larger and have a luxury finish.

Cheng said the units are not short-term vacation rentals or time shares and that leases will likely run about a year.