Scientists discover new biomarker to help determine aggressiveness of brain cancer

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found a new biomarker for glioma, a common type of brain cancer, that can help doctors determine how aggressive a cancer is and that could eventually help determine the best course of treatment.

Researchers from the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center found that high expression of a gene called SHOX2 predicted poor survival in intermediate grade gliomas.

"As an independent biomarker, SHOX2 expression is as potent as the currently best and widely used marker known as IDH mutations," said Dr. Adi Gazdar, Professor of Pathology in the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology and a member of the Simmons Cancer Center.

According to the National Cancer Institute, cancers of the brain and nervous system affect nearly 24,000 people annually. In 2013, there were an estimated 152,751 people living with brain and other nervous system cancer in the United States. The overall 5-year survival rate is 33.8 percent.

Knowing the probable survival status of an individual patient may help physicians choose the best treatment.

In combination with IDH mutations or several other biomarkers, SHOX2 expression helped to identify subgroups of patients with a good prognosis even though other biomarkers had predicted a bad prognosis.

"Our findings are based on analysis of previously published studies. They will have to be confirmed in prospective studies, and their clinical contribution and method of use remain to be determined," said Dr. Gazdar, who holds the W. Ray Wallace Distinguished Chair in Molecular Oncology Research.

The findings are published in EBiomedicine.

This work in brain cancer research is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Long-term goals of Dr. Gazdar's lab are to the determine molecular and genetic basis of human cancers, and to develop molecular insights to provide prognostic and diagnostic therapies in the treatment of human cancers. A former researcher at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Gazdar's efforts there and at UT Southwestern have resulted in the collection and analysis of more than 2,500 human tumor specimens as well as the establishment of more than 400 lung, breast, ovary, and other types of tumor cell lines.