Purpose of review: This review summarizes the use of molecular diagnostics in glioma and its effect on the development of novel therapeutics and management decisions.
Recent findings: Genomic and proteomic profiling of brain tumors has provided significant expansion of our understanding of oncogenesis, characterization, and prognostication of brain tumors. Molecular markers such as MGMT, EGFR, IDH, 1p19q, ATRX, TERT, FGFR-TACC, and BRAF are now being used to classify brain tumors as well as influence management decisions. Several of these markers are also being used as therapeutic targets. We review the use of several molecular diagnostics in gliomas and discuss their impact on drug development and clinical trial design. In the future, molecular characterization based on a specific genomic, proteomic as well as transcriptomes for bioformatics analysis will provide clinicians the ability to rationally select drugs with actionable targets for each patient.
Keywords: 1p/19q; EGFR; Glioblastoma; Glioma; IDH; MGMT.