Gene expression analysis of glioblastomas identifies the major molecular basis for the prognostic benefit of younger age

Background: Glioblastomas are the most common primary brain tumour in adults. While the prognosis for patients is poor, gene expression profiling has detected signatures that can sub-classify GBMs relative to histopathology and clinical variables. One category of GBM defined by a gene expression signature is termed ProNeural (PN), and has substantially longer patient survival relative to other gene expression-based subtypes of GBMs. Age of onset is a major predictor of the length of patient survival where younger patients survive longer than older patients. The reason for this survival advantage has not been clear.

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Lee Y, Scheck AC, Cloughesy TF, Lai A, Dong J, Farooqi HK, Liau LM, Horvath S, Mischel PS, Nelson SF