Molecular subgroups of medulloblastoma: an international meta-analysis of transcriptome, genetic aberrations, and clinical data of WNT, SHH, Group 3, and Group 4 medulloblastomas

• Published in: Acta neuropathologica Vol. 123; no. 4; pp. 473 - 484
• Main Authors: Kool, Marcel, Korshunov, Andrey, Remke, Marc, Jones, David T. W., Schlanstein, Maria, Northcott, Paul A., Cho, Yoon-Jae, Koster, Jan, Schouten-van Meeteren, Antoinette, van Vuurden, Dannis, Clifford, Steven C., Pietsch, Torsten, von Bueren, Andre O., Rutkowski, Stefan, McCabe, Martin, Collins, V. Peter, Bäcklund, Magnus L., Haberler, Christine, Bourdeaut, Franck, Delattre, Olivier, Doz, Francois, Ellison, David W., Gilbertson, Richard J., Pomeroy, Scott L., Taylor, Michael D., Lichter, Peter, Pfister, Stefan M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.04.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Distribution; Brain tumors; Cerebellar Neoplasms - classification; Cerebellar Neoplasms - diagnosis; Cerebellar Neoplasms - genetics; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Chromosome Aberrations; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 3; Cohort Studies; Cytogenetics; Data processing; Demography; DNA; Female; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic - physiology; Genetic research; Hedgehog protein; Hedgehog Proteins - genetics; Hedgehog Proteins - metabolism; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; International Cooperation; Kv1.1 Potassium Channel - genetics; Kv1.1 Potassium Channel - metabolism; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Medulloblastoma; Medulloblastoma - classification; Medulloblastoma - diagnosis; Medulloblastoma - genetics; Microarray Analysis; Multivariate Analysis; Neurophysiology; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Pathology; Receptors, Atrial Natriuretic Factor - genetics; Receptors, Atrial Natriuretic Factor - metabolism; Retrospective Studies; Reviews; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Survival; Survival Analysis; Systematic review; Transcriptome; Wnt protein; Wnt Proteins - genetics; Wnt Proteins - metabolism; Young Adult; Pediatric brain tumor; Medulloblastoma; Subgroups; Meta-analysis
• ISSN: 0001-6322; 1432-0533; 1432-0533
• DOI: 10.1007/s00401-012-0958-8

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in childhood. Molecular studies from several groups around the world demonstrated that medulloblastoma is not one disease but comprises a collection of distinct molecular subgroups. However, all these studies reported on different numbers of subgroups. The current consensus is that there are only four core subgroups, which should be termed WNT, SHH, Group 3 and Group 4. Based on this, we performed a meta-analysis of all molecular and clinical data of 550 medulloblastomas brought together from seven independent studies. All cases were analyzed by gene expression profiling and for most cases SNP or array-CGH data were available. Data are presented for all medulloblastomas together and for each subgroup separately. For validation purposes, we compared the results of this meta-analysis with another large medulloblastoma cohort ( n  = 402) for which subgroup information was obtained by immunohistochemistry. Results from both cohorts are highly similar and show how distinct the molecular subtypes are with respect to their transcriptome, DNA copy-number aberrations, demographics, and survival. Results from these analyses will form the basis for prospective multi-center studies and will have an impact on how the different subgroups of medulloblastoma will be treated in the future.