Newswise — It may be possible to identify the presence of an aggressive brain tumor in children by studying their cerebrospinal fluid, according to new research led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigators.
Comparing cerebrospinal fluid samples from 40 patients with medulloblastoma — the most common malignant brain tumor in children, accounting for 10% to 15% of pediatric central nervous system tumors — and from 11 healthy children without the disease, investigators identified 110 genes, 10 types of RNA–the machinery that translates proteins–called circular RNAs, 14 lipids and several metabolites that were expressed differently between the two groups. While these details were not specific enough to distinguish among the four subtypes of medulloblastoma, they could be used to identify the presence of cancer versus normal fluid.
A description of the work was published Feb. 24 in the journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications.
“We believe this is the first comprehensive, integrated molecular analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid in medulloblastoma patients,” says senior study author Ranjan Perera, Ph.D., director of the Center for RNA Biology at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH) in St. Petersburg, Florida. Perera is also a senior scientist at the JHACH Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute and an associate professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has a secondary affiliation with the JHACH Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research.
“Our study provides proof of principle that all three molecular approaches — studying RNA, lipids and metabolites — can be successfully applied to cerebrospinal fluid samples, not only to differentiate medulloblastoma patients from those without the disease, but also to provide new insights into the pathobiology of the disease,” Perera adds.
“This study provides data for novel biomarkers to detect and track medulloblastoma, which are very much needed to enable improved patient outcomes,” says Chetan Bettegowda, M.D., Ph.D., Jennison and Novak Families Professor of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. “This work also forms the theoretical basis for examining similar biomarkers for other types of brain cancers and other neurological disorders.”
