Using Genomic Analysis to Guide Individual Treatment in Glioblastoma

The purpose of the study is to assess whether the use of genomics can identify patient specific treatment choices in glioblastoma (GBM) that improves clinical outcomes over standard of care. GBM is a devastating disease, the most common primary brain tumor and the most aggressive. With current standard therapy, which includes surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy with temozolomide, the median survival is only 14.6 months. Once patients fail temozolomide, there are no other proven therapies, although other chemotherapies, bevacizumab, and tyrosine kinase inhibitors are often tried. Because tumors are different between patients, outcomes vary among patients. For example, temozolomide, though recommended to all patients with GBM as the only chemotherapy to improve survival, is also known not to be effective in patients with o6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) unmethylated tumors. This example underscores the idea that if each tumor is different, and that perhaps there would be better outcomes if each tumor was treated uniquely.

Genomic sequencing is a technology that can be employed to identify specific characteristics of each tumor as compared to healthy cells. Since 2008, genomic sequencing technology has advanced significantly, having entered the era of next generation sequencing, and simultaneously, the cost of using this technology has dramatically decreased, nearing the cost of some currently used diagnostic tests such as MRI. In this study, the investigators plan to assess the usefulness of this technology and its analysis as a method of guiding treatment choices for the individual patient with GBM.

The investigators plan to sequence tumor/normal from GBM patients to identify mutations. The mutations will be analyzed for potential drug targets for treatment and recommendations for treatment will be suggested if any are identified. If the clinician implements the recommendations, clinical follow up data will be collected. The investigators will compare clinical outcomes, such as survival to historical controls undergoing standard of care treatment to assess whether this genomic guided, individualized therapy determination improves these measures.

In addition, the investigators plan to use next generation sequencing methods to determine whether the presence of brain messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and miRNA can be detected in the peripheral blood and whether there is biological relevance to their presence if detected.