Molecular heterogeneity characterizes glioblastoma with lipoblast/adipocyte-like cytology

Virchows Arch. 2015 Jul;467(1):105-9. doi: 10.1007/s00428-015-1774-z. Epub 2015 Apr 21.

Abstract

Glioblastoma, the most common primary brain tumor in adults, may rarely show among unusual histological patterns lipoblast/adipocyte-like features. The genetic features of such cases are not yet well characterized, and molecular data are available for only few cases. In order to further expand our knowledge about their molecular profile, we analyzed four cases of glioblastoma with adipocyte-like features. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) revealed loss of PTEN and MDM2 amplification in two cases while another case was characterized by CDKN2A deletion. Conversely, we did not find any evidence of EGFR amplification, BRAF (V600E) or IDH1/2 mutations. Our results, along with data published in previous studies, showed that glioblastoma with lipoblast/adipocyte-like cytology present a heterogeneous genetic background and therefore seem to represent more a rare phenotypic variant than a specific tumor subtype.

MeSH terms

  • Adipocytes / pathology*
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Brain Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Brain Neoplasms / pathology
  • Female
  • Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / analysis
  • Glioblastoma / genetics*
  • Glioblastoma / pathology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins / analysis
  • PTEN Phosphohydrolase / genetics
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 / genetics

Substances

  • Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein
  • MAP2 protein, human
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins
  • MDM2 protein, human
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2
  • PTEN Phosphohydrolase
  • PTEN protein, human