Longitudinal Characteristics of Glioblastoma in Genome-Wide Studies

Abstract

Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest tumors with barely over one-year median survival despite intensive efforts in defining its molecular characteristics and searching for innovative treatment strategies. While major progress has been made in cataloging cross-sectional genomic, transcriptomic and epigenomic features of the tumor, and inferring its main molecular pathways and niches for potential targeted intervention, we still do not have sufficient knowledge concerning evolutionary patterns and dynamics of molecular changes or the treatment-induced effects affecting glioblastoma biology. In this review, we summarize the results of recent longitudinal genomic, transcriptomic and epigenomic studies that brought us closer to a better understanding of this lethal disease. Evidence suggests that neuronal / glioma stem cells with accumulating mutations initiate glioblastoma development and recurrence, but the hypothetical models describing the courses that lead to established tumors have not been fully proven. Moving from the histopathological phenotype to the results of high resolution OMICS studies, we try to synthesize the currently available information from sequential glioblastoma analyses in order to highlight its multifaceted features and heterogenetity, as well as the expected complexity of potential treatment strategies that might once succeed.