Publication

Metabolic alterations in meningioma reflect the clinical course

Journal Paper/Review - Mar 1, 2021

Units
PubMed
Doi

Citation
Masalha W, Heiland D, Beck J, Schnell O, Krüger M, Delev D, Weber S, Pompe N, Woerner J, Daka K, Grauvogel J. Metabolic alterations in meningioma reflect the clinical course. BMC cancer 2021; 21:211.
Type
Journal Paper/Review (English)
Journal
BMC cancer 2021; 21
Publication Date
Mar 1, 2021
Issn Electronic
1471-2407
Pages
211
Brief description/objective

BACKGROUND
Meningiomas are common brain tumours that are usually defined by benign clinical course. However, some meningiomas undergo a malignant transformation and recur within a short time period regardless of their World Health Organization (WHO) grade. The current study aimed to identify potential markers that can discriminate between benign and malignant meningioma courses.

METHODS
We profiled the metabolites from 43 patients with low- and high-grade meningiomas. Tumour specimens were analyzed by nuclear magnetic resonance analysis; 270 metabolites were identified and clustered with the AutoPipe algorithm.

RESULTS
We observed two distinct clusters marked by alterations in glycine/serine and choline/tryptophan metabolism. Glycine/serine cluster showed significantly lower WHO grades and proliferation rates. Also progression-free survival was significantly longer in the glycine/serine cluster.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that alterations in glycine/serine metabolism are associated with lower proliferation and more recurrent tumours. Altered choline/tryptophan metabolism was associated with increases proliferation, and recurrence. Our results suggest that tumour malignancy can be reflected by metabolic alterations, which may support histological classifications to predict the clinical outcome of patients with meningiomas.