Sex Differences ID’d in Response to Glioblastoma Treatment

FRIDAY, Jan. 4, 2019 — Sex differences have been identified in response to therapy among glioblastoma (GBM) patients, according to a study published in the Jan. 2 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Wei Yang, Ph.D., from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues used a quantitative image-based measure of response to examine the impact of standard therapy on male and female patients with GBM. Data were included for a cohort of 63 patients with GBM (40 male and 23 female patients).

The researchers found that standard therapy was more effective for female versus male patients with GBM. Using a computational algorithm applied to linked GBM transcriptome and outcome data, sex-specific molecular subtypes of GBM were identified; in male and female patients, cell cycle and integrin signaling were identified as critical determinants of survival, respectively. In a panel of male and female patient-derived GBM cell lines, the clinical relevance of cell cycle and integrin signaling pathway signatures was further established.

“It is our expectation that this study could have an immediate impact on the care of patients with glioblastoma and further research, as the findings indicate we should be stratifying male and female glioblastoma into risk groups and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment in a sex-specific manner,” a coauthor said in a statement.

One author served as a paid consultant for Monterris and received a Stryker Research Grant.

Abstract/Full Text

Posted: January 2019

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