Genome sequencing is changing the diagnosis and treatment of brain cancer patients

Patients diagnosed with a certain type of brain tumor live longer after aggressive treatment with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy

For the study, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) followed 38 patients with a tumor type reclassified by the World Health Organization from grade 2 or 3 in November 2021 Gliomas, based on their molecular characteristics, are classified as "glioblastoma, IDH-wild-type, CNS WHO grade 4"

Early/Evolving Glioblastoma May Have 'Underlying Biological Differences' While studying MRIs of first group of patients, researchers found that 33 of 38 patients had images of low-grade gliomas radiological features, while the remaining 5 had traditional glioblastoma imaging features

"Historically, we have relied on what the pathologist sees under the microscope to guide treatment, which may depend on the pathologist's experience and the size of the sample collected from the neurosurgeon," said co-author Jenny Taylor ( Jennie Taylor, MD, MPH, is a neuro-oncologist in neurosurgery at the University of California, San Francisco, treating adults with brain tumors

When the UCSF500 Cancer Genome Panel was first implemented in 2015, about 5% to 10% of patients had to have their pathological diagnosis revised after genomic testing, Solomon said

Sometimes the final diagnosis is sobering, sometimes joyous—for example, a child whose early microscopic examination showed a grade 4 tumor was corrected to a grade 1 tumor after genomic testing

Prospective genomically-guided identification of 'early/evolving' and 'undersampled' IDH-wildtype glioblastoma leads to improved clinical outcomes