Dr. Daniel Brat on Characterizing Diffuse Lower Grade Gliomas

Daniel J. Brat, MD, PhD, vice chair, Translational Programs, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, director, Cancer Tissue and Pathology Shared Resource, Winship Cancer Institute, discusses genomic characterization of diffuse lower grade gliomas.

This Cancer Genome Atlas study aimed to molecularly categorize and catalog present molecular alterations within a tumor type, specifically diffuse lower grade gliomas. This is a family of diseases thought to be histologically different, Brat explains. However, there is an ongoing issue with the diagnosis and treatment of these patients, due to a lack of agreement on a histologic diagnosis. Therefore, new potential molecular knowledge about this group of brain tumors could impact diagnosis and treatment, Brat says.

The analysis used 6 molecular platforms, such as mutations, deletions and amplifications. In clustering this data without any assumptions or classifications, researchers determined they were able to narrow tumors down to 3 non-overlapping molecular classes of diffuse gliomas with no histology involved.

Within these 3 disease classes, biomarkers would be able to better discriminate these tumors compared to histology, Brat says. This could lead researchers to identify a primary molecular classification of solid tumors.