Washington, July 7 - Canine and human genes are spurring the researchers' drive to find a cure for brain cancer.

Pinpointing genes involved in human brain cancer can be like looking for a needle in a haystack, and sometimes the needle you find may not be the right one.

By comparing human and canine genomes, researchers have discovered that a gene believed to be involved in meningiomas -- tumours that affect the thin covering of the human brain -- may not be the key to tumour formation as previously thought, and they've narrowed the search for the real culprit.

Meningiomas are intracranial tumours, meaning that they do not grow within brain tissue itself, but in the space between the brain and the skull.

In humans, they are associated with genetic defects of large segments of chromosomes, which makes isolating the specific genes involved extremely difficult.

Humans suffering from meningioma frequently lose one copy of almost the entire length of human chromosome 22.