Improving Disease Risk Assessment in Medulloblastoma
Author Information
Author(s): Gilbertson R, Wickramasinghe C, Hernan R, Balaji V, Hunt D, Jones-Wallace D, Crolla J, Perry R, Lunec J, Pearson A, Ellison D
Primary Institution: St Jude Children's Research Hospital
Hypothesis
Can molecular abnormalities improve the accuracy of disease risk stratification in children with medulloblastoma beyond clinical staging alone?
Conclusion
The study found that combining clinical and molecular factors provides a more accurate assessment of disease risk in medulloblastoma patients.
Supporting Evidence
- 80% of tumors showed ErbB2 receptor expression.
- 49% of tumors had deletion of chromosome 17.
- 17p loss occurred in isolation in 20% of cases.
- 17p loss was associated with gain of 17q in 29% of cases.
- MYC amplification was detected in only 2 tumors.
- Significant prognostic factors included metastatic disease and high ErbB2 receptor expression.
Takeaway
Researchers looked at tumor samples from kids with a brain cancer called medulloblastoma to see if testing for certain genes could help doctors better understand how serious the disease is.
Methodology
41 primary medulloblastoma tumor samples were analyzed for ErbB2 receptor expression and chromosome 17 abnormalities using immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization.
Statistical Information
P-Value
P = 0.0006, P = 0.007, P = 0.003
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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