Pathologic and molecular aspects of anaplasia in circumscribed gliomas and glioneuronal tumors

Abstract

Many breakthroughs have been made in the past decade regarding our knowledge of the biological basis of the diffuse gliomas, the most common primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors. These tumors as a group are aggressive, associated with high mortality and have a predilection for adults. However, a subset of CNS glial and glioneuronal tumors are characterized by a more circumscribed pattern of growth and occur more commonly in children and young adults. They tend to be indolent, but our understanding of anaplastic changes in these tumors continues to improve as diagnostic classifications evolve in the era of molecular pathology and more integrated and easily-accessible clinical databases. The presence of anaplasia in pleomorphic xanthoastrocytomas and gangliogliomas is assigned a WHO grade III under the current classification, while the significance of anaplasia in pilocytic astrocytomas remains controversial. However, recent data highlight the association of the latter with aggressive clinical behavior, as well as the presence of molecular genetic features of both pilocytic and diffuse gliomas, with the recognition that the precise terminology remains to be defined. We review current concepts and advances regarding histopathology and molecular understanding of pilocytic astrocytomas, pleomorphic xanthoastrocytomas and gangliogliomas, with a focus on their anaplastic counterparts.

High-order radiomics features based on T2 FLAIR MRI predict multiple glioma immunohistochemical features: A more precise and personalized gliomas management

“…The use of CD34 for the prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment of various cancers has been increasing. The precise identification of CD34 noninvasively could help predicting angiogenesis-related gliomas progression [5][6][7][8]. Beside grading, CD34 expression might of assistance to indicate glioblastoma stem-like cells differentiation into tumor-associated endothelial cells in low-grade gliomas [62].…”

“…Accurate grading of glioma is meaningful for clinics, however, significantly different prognosis exists among individuals who were classified as the same grade [1][2][3]. It has been fully studied that gliomas with the same or similar histological characteristics may carried different molecular or genetic information [4][5][6][7][8]. The WHO 2016 classification of CNS tumors also introduces both of the phenotype and the genotype into daily diagnosis and makes it possible to lead a more precise diagnosis of the various entities toward a personalized management of brain tumors.…”

Discovering lethal alleles across the turkey genome using a transmission ratio distortion approach

“…Another significant (P-value < 0.05) MeSH term, Anaplasia (D000708), is classified into the disease domain (Table 7). Anaplasia is related to neoplastic cells and refers to the loss of mature or specialized features of differentiated neoplastic cells (Rodriguez et al 2010;Pujadas et al 2019). Previous studies have shown that genetic variation among inbred mice as a result of continuous uploading and removal of rare variation (new mutations) may generate TRD (Casellas & Medrano 2008;Niu & Liang 2009).…”

Giant cell glioblastoma is a distinctive subtype of glioma characterized by vulnerability to DNA damage

“…In GC-GBM, TP53 mutations are often observed, whereas mutations of IDH and TERT promoter (TERTp) are uncommon [2,3]. Lack of BRAF V600E mutation is a discriminating feature of GC-GBM from pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma [4][5][6]. Although GC-GBM shows better prognosis compared with other classic GBM subtypes [7], the molecular biology of GC-GBM has not yet been sufficiently elucidated.…”