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Pineal region glioblastomas display features of diffuse midline and non-midline gliomas

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Abstract

Introduction

Pineal region glioblastomas (GBM) are very rare, with approximately 46 cases described in the literature. The epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of these lesions are poorly characterized.

Methods

We identified all cases of pineal region GBM treated surgically at our institution between 1990 and 2017. Demographic and clinical follow-up data were extracted from the medical records for all cases. Pathology was reviewed and classified according to 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Specific attention was given to the frequency of histone H3 K27M mutations in these midline gliomas.

Results

Eight patients (seven men, one woman) with pineal region GBM, WHO grade IV, were identified. The most common presenting symptoms were headache (75%), vision changes (75%), and gait imbalance/ataxia (50%). Median age at diagnosis was 48.5 years (range 36–74 years). Radical subtotal resection, via a supracerebellar infratentorial approach, was achieved in 75% of patients. Review of the surgical pathology revealed seven primary GBMs (including one giant cell GBM) and one pineal region GBM that developed three years after resection of a pineal parenchymal tumor of intermediate differentiation. No cases demonstrated evidence of IDH-1 R132H mutation (N = 6) or 1p/19q co-deletion (N = 3). One case tested positive for the histone H3 K27M-mutation. Targeted exome sequencing of 467 cancer-related genes revealed nonsense mutations in ATRX and NF1. Adjuvant radiation and chemotherapy was employed in 87.5% and 75.0% of patients, respectively. Median overall survival (OS) was 15 months (range 2–24 months) from GBM diagnosis.

Conclusions

This study expands the clinical and pathologic spectrum of pineal region GBM, and provides the first report of the genetic landscape of these tumors.

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Abbreviations

GBM:

Glioblastoma

WHO:

World Health Organization

CNS:

Central nervous system

PPTID:

Pineal parenchymal tumor of intermediate differentiation

CUMC:

Columbia University Medical Center

IRB:

Institutional Review Board

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

r-STR:

Radical subtotal resection

STR:

Subtotal resection

OS:

Overall survival

EBRT:

External beam radiotherapy

SCIT:

Supracerebellar infratentorial

IHTC:

Interhemispheric transcallosal

COSMIC:

Catalogue of somatic mutations in cancer

OMIM:

Online mendelian inheritance in man

dbSNP:

Single nucleotide polymorphism database

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Author notes

  1. Randy S. D’Amico, George Zanazzi, Peter Canoll and Jeffrey N. Bruce have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurological Surgery, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Randy S. D’Amico, Peter Wu & Jeffrey N. Bruce

  2. Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    George Zanazzi & Peter Canoll

Authors
  1. Randy S. D’Amico
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  2. George Zanazzi
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  4. Peter Canoll
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  5. Jeffrey N. Bruce
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Correspondence to Randy S. D’Amico.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study formal consent is not required.

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D’Amico, R.S., Zanazzi, G., Wu, P. et al. Pineal region glioblastomas display features of diffuse midline and non-midline gliomas. J Neurooncol 140, 63–73 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-018-2931-4

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