Study Identifies Three Glioblastoma Subtypes

Research led by RCSI Ireland’s University of Medicine and Health Sciences has described three subtypes of glioblastoma—findings that could be used to identify targeted and more effective therapies for the most common and aggressive form of adult primary brain cancer.

"Glioblastoma patients currently have a poor prognosis due to limited treatment options so it is vital that new treatments be developed,” says senior author and lead investigator, Professor Annette Byrne, Head of the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine Group. “Targeted treatment or ‘precision medicine’ has the potential to improve outcomes for these patients. We hope further analysis of the tumor subtypes identified in this research, will provide the data needed to support future glioblastoma clinical trials in Ireland.”

The classification, published recently in Annals of Oncology, was based on the different kind of non-cancer cells that can be found within the tumor. These so-called tumor microenvironment cells can include immune cells and blood vessel cells. 

Precision medicine approaches could include the use of immunotherapies in patients that have the tumor subtype defined by high levels of immune cells within their tumor microenvironment. An assessment of glioblastoma clinical trial datasets by this research group provided support for this idea, showing that patients with this subtype of tumor may have an improved outcome when treated with immunotherapies compared to other subtypes.

In addition to the RCSI team, the study included clinical colleagues from the National Centre of Neurosurgery; Beaumont Hospital Dublin (Ireland); GLIOTRAIN brain tumor research consortium (comprised of INSERM, the Paris Brain Institute ICM, VIB-KU Leuven Centre for Cancer Biology, and The Jackson Laboratory Erasmus MC); and several clinical collaborators from leading US brain tumor research centers.