Expression of decitabine-targeted oncogenes in meningiomas in vivo

Abstract

Treatment of meningiomas refractory to surgery and irradiation is challenging and effective chemotherapies are still lacking. Recently, in vitro analyses revealed decitabine (DCT, 5-aza-2’–deoxycytidine) to be effective in high-grade meningiomas and, moreover, to induce hypomethylation of distinct oncogenes only sparsely described in meningiomas in vivo yet. Expression of the corresponding onco- and tumor suppressor genes TRIM58, FAM84B, ELOVL2, MAL2, LMO3, and DIO3 were analyzed and scored by immunohistochemical staining and RT-PCR in samples of 111 meningioma patients. Correlations with clinical and histological variables and prognosis were analyzed in uni- and multivariate analyses. All analyzed oncogenes were highly expressed in meningiomas. Expression scores of TRIM58 tended to be higher in benign than in high-grade tumors 20 vs 16 (p =.002) and all 9 samples lacking TRIM58 expression displayed WHO grade II/III histology. In contrast, median expression scores for both FAM84B (6 vs 4, p ≤.001) and ELOVL2 (9 vs 6, p