[Occurrence and molecular pathology of high grade gliomas]

Abstract

Background: Glial tumours represent the most frequent type of primary brain cancers. Gliomas are characterized by heterogeneity that makes the diagnosis, histological classification and the choosing of correct therapy more difficult. Despite the advances in developing therapeutic strategies patients with malignant gliomas have a poor prognosis; therefore glial tumours represent one of the most important areas of cancer research. There are no detailed data on the epidemiology of gliomas in Hungary.

Methods: In the first section of our publication, we analysed the histological diagnosed cases between 2007 and 2011 at the Institute of Pathology, University of Debrecen Medical and Health Science Centre. We analyzed the incidence of 214 high-grade gliomas by tumor grades, gender, age, and the anatomical localization.

Results: The majority of cases were glioblastoma (182 cases), and the remaining 32 cases were anaplastic gliomas. The mean age of patients was 57 years (+/- 16.4), and the male:female ratio was 1.1:1. The most frequent area of tumors was the frontal lobe followed by the temporal, parietal and occipital lobe. We include new findings published recently about glioma pathogenesis, molecular pathways, mutant genes and chromosomal regions. We explain briefly the role of selected important genes in glioma genesis and give an update on knowledge provided by modern molecular methods, which could beneficially influence future therapy and the diagnosis of gliomas.