Molecular Prognostic Markers for Low-Grade Gliomas

This study will apply the prognostic markers in childhood high-grade gliomas to analyze low-grade gliomas. Researchers led by principal investigator Dr. Ian F. Pollack, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, will evaluate a series of hypothesis-based markers linked with glioma progression in previous studies, such as MGMT status, proliferation index and genetic alterations. These results would be amenable to comparison with results from high-throughput allelotyping. Researchers will evaluate 100 “favorable-risk” (e.g., grossly resected) tumors in parallel with 100 “higher-risk” (unresectable brainstem and diencephalic) lesions. This analysis should have sufficient statistical power to identify meaningful prognostic associations, and would provide new insights into biological correlates of prognosis in pediatric gliomas and therapeutic targets to improve the chances of curing these tumors. We recognize the Brain Tumor Society (BTS) Boston for their support on this project. UPDATE: This study resulted in a published paper in the Brain Pathology Journal, September 2009.

Funded in 2007.