Analysis of Disease Progression and Treatment-Induced Alterations in Glioblastoma - an Integrative Morphological and Molecular Approach

Objectives of the project:

The aim of this study is to analyze systematically morphological and molecular changes associated with glioblastoma progression and therapy-resistance in matched pre- and post-therapeutic glioblastoma samples.

The following primary aims will be addressed:

1. Morphological characterisation of changes in a large series of matched glioblastoma tissues pertaining to i. Vascularization and hypoxia-mediated factors ii. Tumor necrosis and chemoradiation-induced necrosis iii. Inflammatory response iv. Tumor cellularity and proliferation v. Tumor cell phenotype after treatment e.g. glial-mesenchymal transition
2. Molecular analyses

i. Transcriptomic, DNA methylation and genomic profiling will be performed to detect changes in gene expression, methylation and copy number aberrations in post-therapeutic as compared to pre-therapeutic tumor tissue. ii. The relationship between the transcriptomic, DNA methylation and genomic profiles will be analyzed. 3. Exploratory analysis of associations between morphological and molecular changes in a screening set of 30 glioblastoma cases (with available fresh frozen tissues at first and second surgery) and subsequent validation of relevant findings in a larger glioblastoma cohort (150 cases with matched formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues) by appropriate methods including immunohistochemistry, fluorescence-in-situ-hybridization, and sequencing. 4. Special attention will be paid to gender-specific patterns of therapy-related changes and tumor progression.